JimNorthTexas wrote:
I don't need dramatic skies, even for vacation photos. But for shots I want to print I prefer a nice blue sky with some clouds and then bring out some detail.
Please share your tips on taking your own: like camera settings, from your roof or ground, anything. And after taking them could you give some detail on what you do with them in PS, LR if anything.
On cloud brushes, do you use them? Do you make your own or buy them? Any techniques both in camera and your editing program of choice that you would be kind enough to share?
Any techniques you saw on the web about the above that you could share?
How do you match the new sky to the photo?
Thank you for help. Looking forward to you comments & suggestions, and hopefully a few techniques.
Just trying to start collecting skies and know what to do with them when I get a photo that I want to print where the sky is not ideal.
I don't need dramatic skies, even for vacation pho... (
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I don't replace skies (at least for now) but I have been doing quite a bit of experimentation, both with raw and JPEG captures. The first thing I would suggest you do is set your camera to JPEG, learn how to do picture control adjustments, then go outside on a day with interesting clouds. Play with exposure, contrast, sharpness, and saturation to see what effects various adjustments have where you can see those results against the actual clouds. You can get pretty dramatic results by reducing exposure (to enhance highlight detail), increasing saturation (to strengthen the blue of the sky), and increase contrast (to make the clouds stand out from the sky).
Use Daylight white balance. The predominance of blue just about guarantee that Automatic White Balance is going to hand you a big mess.
For metering, I have used matrix metering with -2 stops of EC, and I have used spot metering with +2 stops of EC, and sometimes different levels of adjustment work better. Experiment and learn what works.
Here's the really cool thing, if you've stayed with me this far. If you have a modern camera with wide dynamic range, and if you are saving raw files, and if you can coax a pretty decent sky, you can turn the normal process upside down. Expose for the sky, trust your camera's capability, and bring up the terrestrial elements (which are shadows and midtones) in post production.
I know you said that you aren't looking for dramatic skies, but the first image in this post:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-555526-1.htmlis an image that I captured about three years ago. It was made during blue hour, but illustrates the technique. Exposure was for the sky, and the rest of the image was brought up during post processing. The adjustment was something like two stops, as I recall. (There was also a large white balance adjustment to the entire frame, because my camera, a D810, did not go as far as the 20,000K that I needed.)
I encourage you to play, experiment, and learn. There are lots of fun things to do that can be found outside the ordinary boxes of photographic process.