Did I use the wrong metering mode?

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I recently took a photograph of a field on a relatively bright day. I was shooting with the sun to my right hand-side, with a 28-105 USM II, at around 35mm on my EOS 30/Elan 7E. I used Av mode, and selected an aperture around f/11 for depth of field. The landscape filled around 3/5 of the frame, with the sky filling the rest. I used evaluative metering, and the central focus point was on the landscape area. I also used a skylight filter.

When I received my developed photo's the sky was totally white, hazy, and over exposed, when I remember it being blue and slightly cloudy, while the landscape in the photo was perfectly exposed.

What could I have done to get a better balance?

I have since bought a circular polariser, would this have helped, or should I have done something completely different?

-- Sam Hassall (samhassall@aol.com), August 30, 2001

Answers

Although you don't say for sure, it sounds like you're using print film. If the landscape part of the picture was particularly dark, the automatic exposure in printing will tend to blow out the sky, rendering it white. I see this happen with dark areas that don't come anywhere near being a majority of the frame.

You didn't say if you used a lens hood or not. With the sun at right angles to the lens, there's a good chance the direct sun is hitting the filter, and doing nasty things to the contrast.

-- Geoff Doane (geoff_doane@cbc.ca), August 30, 2001.


Sam,

Look at the negative, and see if you can find more details than in your print (clouds) -- if so, you can have the photo lab print with exposure for the sky.

Two things that have a great impact on landscape photos is a polarizer (circular polarizer when using AF cameras to maintain autofocusing), and a graduated neutral density filter. The graduated filter helps to reduce the extreme exposure variation between the land & sky. If you've never used one before: set your depth of preview on your camera, with an slow aperture such as f/16 or f/22; slide the filter up & down until the banding is right at the horizon; take of the depth of field preview, meter & shoot -- you can even use evaluative metering & the scene won't be so blown out. The polarizer can be used to intensify the blue of the sky & increase contrast with clouds (among its many uses).

-- Hung James Wasson (HJWasson@aol.com), August 30, 2001.


I have similar experience. I found two reasons for that.

1/The contrast exceeded what the print film could handle. If the sky is blue and the landscape would probably be underexposed. A polarizer would help to bring the constrast to a smaller range.

2/ Your lab has made some undesirable adjustment.

In such situation, use no filter because it can cause flare. Most lenses have coating already to combat UV. Always put a lens hood on. Sometimes I think short telephoto is better (optically speaking but it is not flexible for composition) for landscape in a bright day because I can use longer lens hood to cut off the strayed lights (staryed lights make my pciture hazy). For landscape please shoot slides then you cannot blame your lab.

-- Damond Lam (damond_lam@hotmail.com), August 30, 2001.


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