I am really trying to concentrate on exposing my sky better while keeping my subject at the best possible level as well. I took a bride out last week and really experimented with this. CLICK HERE to see my results. I would LOVE CC!!!

Hope everyone is having a great day

Jacque

Great shots! I think those look pretty good!

The more you underexpose your shot the deeper colors you'll get in the sky, but obviously the more you'll underexpose for the subject. I think you balanced that pretty well in those shots.

Nice job!

Yeah if you are shooting your subject a little closer you can always fill flash, set your exposure for the best sky and use your flash to expose your subject.

Your exposures look pretty good and I think you could do some minor tweaking in PS if you really want your sky to pop.

I agree, you did a good job balancing it. I was told that by using a smaller aperture you can also increase color saturation....has anyone found this to be true?

For some reason I hate the way my subject looks when I use my flash, I would rather bring them back in PS. Does anyone else feel this way?

Maybe that is dumb??

Jacque

That first shot is great, nicely done.

Personally, I can't get enough of my flash to bring out my subjects and keep the colours in the sky . . . but that's just me (see my blog for images - I won't hijack your thread).


The less I do in post - the better (as my PS skills are terrible) so finding the balance between the ambient and my flash unit is a constant balancing act.

Since learning about the "proper" use of polorizers at OSPW, my images have been incredible. Also shooting fully manual now. See the dunes images on my blog There's no bride or person in them, but till that day, I'd never had sky look like that. So I'm going to shoot again and add a person to see if I can balance angle and the light. I thought your first shot looked great.

Jacque, have you tried off-camera lighting? When you expose your subject and your background separately from each other you can make the sky any shade you want without having to save the bride in Photoshop.

Jacque I think your shots are fantastic.

Using off camera flash will help you achieve that nice seperation and allow you to darken the sky. Like others have said...shoot manual. Expose for the sky then try to set your flash at about 1/2 to 2/3 stop brighter than the sky (a light meter will help you accomplish this pretty quickly...otherwishe you'll just need to experiment with it). You can also experiment with this 1/3 stop brighter, 1/2, 2/3, 1 stop, etc. One thing I like to do is not monkey with the flash settings very much...just change the distance between the flash and the subject.

If you've got a few bucks, you might look into the "Doug Box Soft Box" -- a pretty nifty setup for outdoor lighting. Click here for more info.

Here's what I do -

Shoot Manual
Meter the sky at f2.8
Meter the subject at f2.8

split the shutter speed difference.

99% of the time you will get great results.

Can you explain this a little bit more? I am confused when you say split the shutter speed difference. Between what?

Thanks to all who commented!! I am going to look into possibly getting an off camera lighting setup, but Im not sure where to start! Not to mention I won't know how to use them!

I do shoot manual for most of these shots, its the only way I feel I can get that sky where it is.


Jacque

Strobist is probably the best online resource for portable location lighting.

Zack's Onelight Workshop is everything you need to know in a workshop setting.

Say you are at iso 200 (don't change that setting)

The sky reads f2.8 1/1250
The subject reads f2.8 1/320

Shoot the whole shebang at around f2.8 f 1/640 (half the difference between 1/1250 and 1/320.

Ahh , ok that makes sense. Thanks for explaining.

This Eric is right on - that's what I do. It works. And a little dodging in Photoshop to bring it all together.

ERIC
www.zvideography.com

Nice shot - I think your exposure is nicely balanced. I would wholeheartedly second Mark - using a polarizer properly will intensify your skies (and save your time on PS!).