Sky Washout

[oldfatman]

I entered photography decades ago with film cameras.  Now I love digital except for one little trouble.  On occassion I get sky washout to totally white.  The next shot in seemingly the same situation is a beautiful blue.  Many wonderful shots have been made worthless by this.  Is there a "trick" I need to know.  I shoot with a 5 meg Canon power shot S60.  It is a pocket camera with tooooooo many buttons.  I have actually gone out on at least two occasions and shot and recorded what I shot like in a notebook to try to get control of this washout mess.  Still had no success at defining my error.  Using after market computer dress up is not what I want to do.  Thanks for any help.

[Roy]

Digital cameras don't have the dynamic range that film has.  Makes it easier to get blown highlights or too dark shadows, etc.  Not familiar with your camera, but if it has spot metering and exposure lock capability, you can use it like a light meter.  Aim the metering spot at several different areas of the scene with different brightness, and watch your F stop.  Find a spot that that meters in the middle, lock the exposure, recompose and shoot.
Shooting RAW also helps, you have more ability to modify your image while processing.
Hope this helps.

[dkerr24]

Thanks for the tips, Roy.  On my upcoming backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon, I'll shoot in RAW mode on my Canon Powershot G9. 

At first, I was concerned about file size and how many SD cards I'd need, but after finding 8gb SD cards for less than $20, this became a non-issue.

[jamesb]

what were the shutter speed and apeture differances between the different shots??

Many times with digitals if your shot is metered off of a dark area of the scene  the sky will be blown out. if you meter off of the sky your shots will usually come out better.

I had a problem a lens for my DSLR that was a cheap but very reliable and good lens, it would blow out shots for no apparant reason.

I would set the camera to manual and it would still blow out the shots. I discovered the ribbon cable controling the apeture was broken and my lens was shooting wide open (f3.5) on ALL shots, even zoomed out to 200mm. I have replaced the lens and all is well now.

[oldfatman]

In the auto mode control of the aperature and shutter is nonexistant.  I shoot the landscapes in the " mountain" setting which is supposed to give me smaller aperatures for more depth of field.  Manual mode fundamentally does not exist.  I have a feeling it has to do with where the camera program decides to put the exposure reading.  It can choose to average as many as nine spots anywhere in the picture to choose the exposure.  I really miss my split image focusing and manual controls with a built in spot metering I get to control.  Thank you folks for the help.  I was wondering if it was filtration or polarization that was needed.  This camera does not accept any filters or additional lenses.  I think a DSLR is in my future when the money gets righter.

[Casa Grande]

as others have said, this is a metering problem.  The camera is simple taking the ground into consideration.  Try this the next time: compose your shot with a majority of the scene in the sky and hold your button down half way.  This will trigger the camera into metering mode.  Then, before you push all the way to take the picture, recompose the shot to include more of the ground as you see fit.  This will effectively fool the camera into giving the sky more weight.  (of course, if you put too much of the sky in the metering shot, you may end up with unwanted dark areas of your ground. Just give it a test run and see how your camera reacts.)

[Roy]

Good advice CG.
OMF, you can still use a polarizer, just hold it against the front of the lens with your free hand.  A bit awkward, but it works.  And try using RAW.  It gives you a lot more control.  Shooting JPEG lets the camera makes decisions for you that you might not like.

[oldfatman]

Thank you David.  That might work with this camera. Tomorrow I will practice my "Kentucky windage" (look it up if you are too young to know about kentucky windage) with different amounts of sky before recompose.  I do a lot of half down button picture focus shots.  Roy, thnks for your input also.  With these two ideas in mind, the operators manual and I will have a serious practice session tomorrow.  I really like the super portability of the camera, but I have missed too many shots for my happiness. In reality it is most likely senile old fat man operator error that proper education will cure.  Thanks for the help in knowing where and what to look for in the manual.

[dkerr24]

CG:  Thank you for that tip... I'll give that a try on the pics where I do shoot in jpg mode. 

Now I just hope that the air quality is good with clear visibility for those big panoramic Grand Canyon shots.  Last Oct they were doing prescribed burns on the North Rim, which clouded the views of the canyon with smoke.

[KDann]

I used to always have this problem. I found that if I metered with the sky I'd get much better results...
In the bright afternoon sun I always shoot at F8, and usually a shutter speed of 1/600, or 1/800 works great. Does your camera have exposure compensation control?

[oldfatman]

Kdann.  The exposure control takes a few button pushes and my memory of sequences is not that good.  David.  I have had two days to try things and by moving up to include about 20% more sky, half cock the shutter button and recompose has worked so far out here in New Mexico. 

Thank you every one for the help.  I still do not like the lack of control of these point and shoot cameras.  I really like the compactness and light weight though. Always with the compromises.

[tjavery]

...I still do not like the lack of control of these point and shoot cameras.  I really like the compactness and light weight though. Always with the compromises.

Yeh, it frustrates me too. I have a little Fuji F30 - an awesome pocket camera, but it lacks full manual control. I can trick it only to a certain extent (e.g. exposure compensation) but it still does what it wants to sometimes.

You might consider getting a model that has full manual controls. I know a few of the Canon Power Shot models have a full manual setting. I'm sure there are other models from Nikon and the like that offer manual control.

[Roy]

I didn't go through all of these, but the "Advanced P&S" cameras have basically the same controls as  DSLR, you just can't change the lens.  They're a little more expensive and a little bigger.  Link is to B&H page:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/8613/Digital_Cameras_Advanced_Point_Shoot_Digital_Cameras.html

There are others;  the thing to look for is a camera with multiple exposure (or metering) modes.