Those Great Big Skies

Trev M

Since recently picking up a 10-20mm Sigma (Cheers Adrian:D) Ive become a little obsessed with Skyscapes.

I guess its a phase, but I just love the spectacularnesses of the skies when they are loaded with crazy clouds and interesting light , I find its hard no to go balistic on the post processing...:rolleyes:

Im a noob and not all that into getting too technical, just enjoy shooting away but Id be interested in any tips people may have or any pics people would like to share.


Fried this one on the aul Lightroom


Went a bit heavy here on the darks:P but love the epicness


Independence Day ! heh heh:D

AnCatDubh

Nice.

Shooting more towards the 10mm end than the 20mm???

Crispin

I love the 2nd one, & 3rd one's good too

I did the same when i bought the 10-20mm, I thought every photo would be improved if I just shot it with a super wide angle

Haven't used mine too much recently, but here is a favourite sky shot of mine:

Trev M

Cheers for the feedback and suggestion, again not being anyway technically savvy on the camera and perhaps its my imagination but I find the lesne definitely loses clarity at the 10mm end.....here's one of the same shots at 10mm with pretty much same PP (er fired to bejaysus I know)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trigger76/3714595349/

Trev M

Very cool crispin, you have a lot of detail in there and the big epicness

Morrisseeee

Yeah, clouds can be mad to photograph ! can be interesting to process too....Nice ones there Trev M, Crispin

As regards tips, I mess with the shadow/highlight slider in CS3 to bring out more dramatic-ness in the clouds/sky.
Also consider a polarizer or filters.

Here's a fiery sky ! with mad clouds ! (which I must have another crack of processing :pac:)

gary82

2nd one's my favourite!

Have you tried any HDR processing? - it does wonders with interesting skies!

Trev M

Hi Gary82 ,
I had a look there at HDR on wiki there , looks like the results are/can be very impressive..... I just has a quick look at wiki , looks a little complicated, will look more into this technique when Ive a little time. Not sure if I have the right software yet though (LR2 and GIMP) Much obliged for the heads up!
T

Cabaal

My fav out of my recent shots

Morrisseeee

Not sure if I have the right software yet though (LR2 and GIMP)

Google Photomatix, it does have a free trial, but unfortunatley it leaves 3 nasty watermarks (damn you watermarks !!)

Fenster

I'm not too keen on #1 and the crop is too tight in #3, but #2 is just perfect. Thank for you sharing it!

Mr. Grieves

These are great, OP, and very nicely processed. The only thing I'd suggest is to crop the bottom of no. 1 so that the horizon sits one third into the frame.

With good skies like these, I don't think you need to go anywhere near HDR processing. You've exposed for the sky, and, while you may have lost foreground detail, that's not the focus of these shots. A dark foreground adds a nice bit of drama anyway. Just my opinion, of course.

Trev M

Much obliged to everyone for the comments and suggestions. I downloaded Photomatix and have messed around with a single RAW image with different processed exposures with mixed results:rolleyes: (eh pretty rough tbh)/ I guess its the kinda thing ya have to work on.

I may get out tomorrow and take three seperate individual exposures and see how I fare? I'll have to manually adjust the exposure rate as I dont think my 450 D has the facility to fire off three successive shots at selected exposures if anyone know different please shout?

Thanks again for all the feeback ,
Trev

nilhg

I see you are using Lightroom, it might be worth your while having a look at LREnfuse, it wont give you those hyper contrasty unrealistic looking shots, but if you want something like the eye saw, its the bees knees, and very reasonable too (you decide what it's worth to you, make the donation then get the full version).

As for bracketing with your 450D it looks as if its possible, if you're doing it manually only change the shutter speed.

Trev M

Ah brilliant nilhg , shutter speed makes sense of course thumbsup...tripod for the win too I guess
Cheers for the link

Crispin

Trev M wrote: »

I may get out tomorrow and take three seperate individual exposures and see how I fare? I'll have to manually adjust the exposure rate as I dont think my 450 D has the facility to fire off three successive shots at selected exposures if anyone know different please shout?

I use manual exposure and adjust shutter speed (make sure you keep aperture the same). make sure you have it on a tripod/beanbag so that when you adjust the exposure time you don't move the camera, saves the added complication of lining up your shots afterwards

sikahunter

you can set your 450d to aeb its very easy i have the 450d but aint used aeb yet

Mike Litoris

Orlando evening

Trev M

Tried my hand at a bit of HDR using Photomatix ....setting AEB on the 450D was very straight forward, I didnt sharpen the RAW images just fired them straight into the software and went from there.

It was a little late when I took a couple of shots so the light wasnt great but had a bash anyway....



Pretty maxed out on this one



Not so much on this one ..I think next time I try these I wont use as under an exposed image as I had used to compile these