Capture a Bright Blue Sky

Capture a Bright Blue Sky

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Capture a Bright Blue Sky

We see a blue sky but it is hard to capture it with camera sometimes. Very often you just wind up with a dull white sky. In fact, to capture a bright blue sky is not really that difficult. All it takes is choosing the right direction for lighting and some shooting techniques.

Front Lighting

Shooting on a good weather day is the prerequisite for capturing a blue sky without any post-editing. However, even with a bright blue sky, the photo we capture may not look ideal. One of the reasons is that the latitude of the human eyes is higher than that of the camera. When shooting into the light, very likely we will wind up with an over-exposed sky if we keep the landscape in proper exposure, or conversely an under-exposed landscape for a blue sky.

To prevent this from happening, we need to pay attention to the direction of lighting. In general, a front lighting can illuminate the foreground objects directly for brighter colors and higher contrast, without having the sky over-exposed. You can also slightly decrease the exposure compensation for even bluer sky.
Title:《艱辛後的獎勵》 Club Canon Member:emilyho
Canon EOS 60D • EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS • 1/400s • f/8 • ISO 100

Use of Graduated Neutral Density Filter

In situation where a front lighting is impossible, one traditional fix is to use a Graduated Neutral Density (GND) filter. A GND filter is a filter that is black and gray on one end and transits gradually to lighter color and eventually transparent on the other. It can thus help reduce the amount of light for the upper area in the framing, preventing the sky to get over-exposed, while retaining rich details for the shadowed area in the lower area with a natural, gradual change.

It is extremely easy to shoot with a GND filter. Simply hold it with your hand in front of the lens will do. If you do not want to hold your camera with a single hand, you can use an optional filter holder. Apart from GND filter, you can use a Gradual Blue filter for more apparent result.
Title:《晴港》 Club Canon Member:Gordon
Canon EOS 6D • EF 17-40mm f/4L USM • 1/200s • f/13 • ISO100

Make Good Use of HDR

HDR (High Dynamic Range) can be used as well in digital photography to achieve images with high dynamic range. By capturing multiple images with different exposure settings and merging them into one HDR image, both blue sky and details in the shadowed areas can be retained. This function is now built-in in some of the latest camera models such as Canon EOS 5D Mark III and EOS 6D.
Take EOS 5D Mark III as an example. We can activate HDR mode from the menu and select the dynamic range from Auto, ±1EV, ±2EV and ±3EV. ±3EV is for scenes with great lighting contrast while ±1EV is for scenes with mild contrast. In addition, different image effects are available for your selection according to shooting needs, including Natural, Art Standard, Art Vivid, Art Bold and Art Embossed. In general, the first three are most commonly used.

After the settings are done, mount your camera on a tripod. Press the shutter button and the camera will capture 3 images with different exposure settings simultaneously and then merge them into one HDR image. If a tripod is not available, enable the “Auto Image Align” function when shooting, but the result may not be as good as using tripod. If you use an older camera model, you will need to post-edit it in computer and select RAW image to shoot. It is also preferably to have a tripod. Shoot with Exposure Bracketing so that the camera will capture 3 images with different exposure settings simultaneously, then combine the images manually using post-editing software.
Title:《晨 • 秋》 Club Canon Member:Rainsze
EOS EOS 5D Mark III • EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM • 1/320s • f/8 • ISO 400

Fill Flash

Apart from the 3 methods mentioned above, we can also use fill flash to illuminate a subject in close range. Take the below photo as an example. The subjects would have been under-exposed if we kept the sky in proper exposure without using flash. To fix this, the photographer captured the shot with a fill flash. What you need to do is to use the sky for metering and use a low ISO setting, a small aperture and a shutter speed not exceeding the Flash Sync Speed of the camera (for example, a shutter speed below 1/200s for EOS 5D Mark III).

For flash output, basically it would be enough if you use manual setting. In general, 1/8 output power or higher is needed, depending on the ISO setting, aperture and shutter speed used. If light is insufficient, we can increase the output power by one stop to 1/4.
Title:《Our 4th Anniversary! Let's be 4ever!》 Club Canon Member:Jimmy Lo
EOS EOS 5D Mark III • EF 17-40mm f/4L USM • 1/160s • f/5.6 • ISO 100
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