This is just a question (i.e. no picture). Further to Spiro's picture of the Bow River in Banff. I agree with the comment that the sky is washed out/overexposed. I often have this problem as well. I know that one of those grad filters works well for flat horizons, but what can you do when there are mountains. Does anyone have any good techniques for bringing out the sky and the mountains? I realize that in many cases this is impossible at 3 in the afternoon on a sunny day, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

-- Patrick Feltmate (pfeltmat@tupmcms1.med.dal.ca), August 04, 2001

Answers

The best way to bring out the sky is to shoot under lower contrast conditions--early in the morning, late in the day, under more cloudy skies, etc. The cover of John Shaw's new book is an example:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0817440593.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

--Mark

-- Mark Erickson (mark@westerickson.net), August 05, 2001.

If you are shooting on a sunny day, make sure it's a clear one -- haze will generally make the contrast very high and you'll wash out your sky. Also, unless you're shooting a sunset, don't put the sun in the frame; in fact, make an effort to have the sun behind you, or at least to one side of you, when you shoot on a sunny day.

On cloudy, evenly lit days, still try to avoid the portion of the sky where the sun would be if it were visible. Some days an all-cloudy sky can be very bright, so you may want to keep it out of the photo altogether.

-- Christian Deichert (torgophile@aol.com), August 05, 2001.

Concur that your best bet is to shoot at a different time, but if you absolutely must take the picture at this time, you may try using a polarizer (this is only effective at certain angles to the sun on clear days) or, in the case of Spiro's picture, it would have been very nice in black and white, where he could have used a red filter to darken the sky a bit.

-- David LaHeist (nikonos@bellsouth.net), August 10, 2001.