How do I stop my background from blowing out?

How do I stop my background from blowing out?

Avoiding Overexposed Skies in Digital Photography

1. Shoot RAW, not JPEG.
2. Use your Camera’s Histogram.
3. Expose for the Sky.
4. Shoot Away from the Sun.
5. Shoot at a Different Time of Day.
6. Shoot and Blend Multiple Bracketed Exposures.
7. Use Flash Photography.
8. Use a Polarizing Filter.

What does clipping the highlights mean?

Clipping happens when you have areas with no information in your photo. When an area has no information, it is either pure white (clipped highlights) or pure black (clipped shadows). Photographers often refer to these as “blown out” areas.

How do you expose for the highlights?

Generally speaking exposing for the highlight essentially means underexposing the photo. You can achieve this by lowering the exposure value in either aperture or shutter priority mode. Depending on your camera model, you’ll have one dial that adjusts your primary setting, and another to adjust the exposure value.

How do you expose to the sky?

Choose the right camera position to photograph the sky. My general rule of thumb for capturing a properly exposed sky AND subject in the same shot is to keep the sun 90 to 180 degrees from my camera lens. This means shooting the sky to the side or opposite of the sun.

What is exposing for highlights?

Should you always expose for the highlights?

It’s generally accepted that digital photographers should expose for the highlights in order to keep things from getting blown out. It’s generally a good rule of thumb because pure white pixels tend to be more distracting than pure black pixels — but there are always exceptions.

Is clipping always bad?

In theory, yes, digital clipping is “bad” but in practice, it’s not that big of a deal. In fact, it can be a REALLY good thing. It allows you to push audio beyond its limits to get something you would not have been able to otherwise.

How do I prevent clipping?

You avoid clipping by making sure your input levels are always below the maximum. I like to pick a target value to aim for (in digital, usually -12 or -18 dB depending on where the noise floor is) and try to keep it there.

Do you expose for highlights or shadows?

Shadows on the other hand recover much better. There might be noise and banding, but at least there’s detail to see. So the golden rule in this technique is to always expose for your highlights and not your subject.