Beginner SKY SKY SKY!!

jpgreenwood

jpgreenwood

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jason
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I am a complete beginner. I think I can take an ok photo IMO, subject matter, angle of shot etc. Camera settings im getting there. The one thing that lets most of my photos down is the sky! Bland, white, featureless! I do live in the NE of England and some say it is grim up North but I wish I could make my pics a bit more "arty". Is this purely a Photshop skill? Here is an example taken with my Nikon D3200, new Nikon prime 35mm f1.8, set on manual, no flash, ISO 100 about 4pm dusk. RAW. Please feedback on how you think I could improve. Im not easily offended.

4

 
danny_bhoy said:
Have a look into getting a set of Graduated filters. They'll help you retain the detail in the sky and stop it from blowing out.…
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Danny, there are not so much details in this mournful sky!

Jason, if I may suggest with DRL setting:

skyskyskypp.jpg
 
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Kodiak Qc said:
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Danny, there are not so much detail in this mournful sky!

Jason, if I may suggest with DRL setting:

skyskyskypp.jpg
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Very true - the pictures weren't loading for me before but I can see them now. The main issue looks like poor light. Filters will also only help if there is detail (clouds) in the sky to retain - in this case there doesn't seem to be.
 
You can't capture what is not there. If you want dramatic skies then you need to go out when the skies are more interesting. If the skies are interesting and you're still getting blank skies then you're getting the exposure wrong for the sky and you'll either need to do HDR (but please do it subtly) or use ND grad filters.
 
What is DRl setting? I also struggle to choose focal points. In regards to the tyre photo above, the focus point is on the centre wheel nut through the tyre. This is my biggest failure when taking multi-subject photos and landscapes etc. The camera has several focus point options and this really confuses me. This is probably a subject for another thread...
 
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snerkler said:
You can't capture what is not there. If you want dramatic skies then you need to go out when the skies are more interesting. If the skies are interesting and you're still getting blank skies then you're getting the exposure wrong for the sky and you'll either need to do HDR (but please do it subtly) or use ND grad filters.
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@jpgreenwood if you only remember one reply on this thread, make it this one. It sums it up pretty much perfectly and hits the nail straight on the head (y)
 
Hi, First I would suggest you get one of these level.JPG
Cost from as little as 99p from China on Ebay to keep your horizon straight.
You can also take images when your out and about of just skies and with a application that allows layers it is easy to change your skies.
Watch this
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUv1GMdV8sI
it is by a gent from your neck of the woods.
Hope it helps.
Russ
 
I'm not sure but if the sky is almost uniform in colour with no clouds, you won't see anything dramatic. Try taking the shot again at sunset with the sun coming into the corner of the image or setting on the horizon on a slightly cloudy day?
 
playing around with the ISO will help to brighten the image.

you could go and buy some interesting COKIN filters to make the foreground/ background more artsy.
 
snerkler said:
You can't capture what is not there. If you want dramatic skies then you need to go out when the skies are more interesting. If the skies are interesting and you're still getting blank skies then you're getting the exposure wrong for the sky and you'll either need to do HDR (but please do it subtly) or use ND grad filters.
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This^

You can arse about with filters, multiple exposures and other 'tricks', but the best advice is to learn to see the image before you shoot it, if you want an interesting sky, you have to shoot an interesting sky. Just like if you want to shoot a flower in bloom or a beautiful lady. There's only so much you can do to enhance it, the important thing is planning and execution.
 
I'm just going to consider the first one. My advice is to forget about the sky, at least in the first instance. What were you trying to photograph? You must have seen something to make you want to photograph it, and it seems that the sky was blank and featureless in real life, so it clearly wasn't the sky that motivated you. If you can identify what you really wanted to photograph, you might be able to so arrange things that the sky - which clearly didn't put you off when you were there - won't be a negative element in the photograph.

I'm not entirely happy with your camera position - I think an inch or so lower might have been better, but I'm looking carefully at the red and grey boards at top and bottom of the boat and noting what they line up with/intersect in the picture plane. I also find the grey pebble bottom left distracting.

There's a similar problem (in my opinion) with the second one.

My biggest piece of advice would be to think about why you want to take a photograph and use that to concentrate on what matters.
 
What I'd tempted to do with a big boring sky like that is to crop it out the scene, so that the boat, sea and pebbles fill most of the frame, with just a little amount of sky showing. The dull sky is now not a problem because its not there.

I'd also play around with the blues in the raw editor to make the scene pop a little more:

sky_zpsgyfydpz3.jpg
 
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Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I wanted the photo to look ginda gloomy with the brightness of the boat being the point of interest. I see your points about horizons and lining things up. I never think of these things. Ive got Gimp 2.8 as my photsuite and not quite got to grips with it yet.
 
jpgreenwood said:
Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I wanted the photo to look ginda gloomy with the brightness of the boat being the point of interest. I see your points about horizons and lining things up. I never think of these things. Ive got Gimp 2.8 as my photsuite and not quite got to grips with it yet.
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For a gloomy sky...
Find a gloomy sky. as before - we cant wish our shots into being, we have to find or create them.
The 2 ways I can think of 'creating' that in the shot above would be an ND grad to darken the sky, or to underexpose the shot and add light with flash to the boat. But with either of those the sky would just be darker, to make it menacing requires more cloud interest which requires a different day.
 
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