This is a quick pic taken of a coal train coming into the plant. Often, when aiming more toward the ground, the sky part appear brighter (just about white). When aiming more toward the sky, it makes the ground stuff look very dark. You probably can’t even pick out the train, can you? Is there much of anything that can be done about this, or is it just common to have the brighter skies? That’s usually no big issue, but I wanted to try to get the train and that cirrus cloud rainbow together, and that just wasn’t happening. That’s the best pic I could get of that.
Speaking of that, is there some kind of name for those rainbows? It had mostly vanished by the time I got out and snapped the picture, but you can still see it (left of the jet plume). Just curious…
The rainbow is actually a halo. Like sometimes happens with rainbows, the cloud conditions are right all the way around the sun, so the halo isn’t complete, either.
The brightness phenomenon is characteristic of the light metering in the camera. If you are shooting any sort of autoexposure (AE), your camera will adjust for what it sees at the monitoring points (which vary by camera). If it sees bright (ie, sky) it will close down the aperature and/or increase the shutter speed (open less time). That will make the darker portions of your picture underexposed.
If you point the camera more at the ground, it will detect less brightness and adjust the shutter speed down and/or open the aperature. Now the sky will be overexposed.
When shooting in color, you don’t have much choice, although you can sometimes make changes in post-processing, if the image is amenable (ie, not too over- or under-exposed). This can be done with both film and digital images, although it’s a darkroom exercise with “real” film.
If you are shooting black and white, filters can be used to bring out sky detail (specifically a yellow filter - my digital has that option).
Using the rule of thirds and placing the horizon line at the upper third line will probably get you the best results in most cases. If you need to have more sky than not, you also need to have the light (sun) behind you as otherwise all you’ll usually get is a silhouette.
Was the picture taken on a cloudy day,the sky looks overcast ? If it was ,Its really hard to get correct exposure with any kind of camera on cloudy days without washing out the sky altogether or not getting enough light to show the objects detail…Its a trade off,wash out sky more detail or no detail and picturesque sky…Play with the apperture openings,the bigger the # the less light you get,the smaller the # more light you get…Try a slow shutter speed also,if this photo was taken in late evening try a time exposure shot if thats possible with your camera…If you are shooting into the sun you need a nuetral density filter,this will even up the light and give you the look you want…Maybe
The best way to tame the sky is with a split-ND filter. Half clear/half neutral density. Place the ND part over the sky and the clear part over the ground.
Another thing to try is a polarizing filter. Might help, might not.
Well, it was evening, but the sun was still high, and it was mostly cloudy from teh cirrus clouds. I don’t have any special filters, so the best I can do is the rule of thirds mentioned. That’s usually what I end up following anyhow, I just wasn’t sure if there was a simple way around that issue or not. Thanks a lot for the help!
Something else none of us mentioned - if you’re shooting a digital SLR, get out of auto mode and play with the shutter speed and aperature. Bracketing the exposure is a practice almost as old as photography itself. If you’re not sure where to start, go with what the camera chose and play from there.