1-make sure the sun is behind you2-make sure the sun is lighting up whatever is in the picture3-if possible shoot within a couple hours of sunrise/sunset4-meter the sky and hope for the besthttp://www.flickr.com/photos/bertreimer..

A for instance... People in the shade, nice blue sky behind them... Shoot AV mode, ISO 100 or 200, F stop 5.6, set minus 1 EC on the camera, use your flash (I assume you have one) set to HSS (high speed synch) and minus 1/2 FEC. Try a shot & see what it's like. Make adj. as needed. I'll post an example shortly.Dave..

Not in the shade & not people but you'll get the idea..

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Dave..

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Dave..

I know what you're going through. As a beginner myself, I have that same problem and I'm learning how to expose properly myself. I was also told that I need a polarizer. A good one I heard is made by B&W. I use a Canon Rebel XTI 400D...

The circular polarizer is not going to change the sky color from what you got as white to show up as blue. The issue at hand is that the sky was overexposed and blew out when recorded by the camera. I am guessing that you got proper exposure on your subject matter in the shade because that is where you metered. The issue at hand is that the beautiful blue sky has a greater light intensity than your subject matter and, thus, blew out and became white. The circular polarizer will deepen color saturation but isn't going to change the exposure difference between the foreground subjects and the background sky..

This is actually a situation where your goal is to balance flash on the subjects with the light in the sky. It takes some work but is well worth the effort..

Also, there are times when it is nice to blow out the sky, I did so on a macro last year and it gave me this effect straight in camera. I set my flash to give me a proper exposure on the butterfly, and since the sky was still so much brighter, it appears as total white..

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Lyle Collins.

Http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyleuga..

If you shoot a lot of blue sky material outdoors, consider getting the Cokin filter system of filter adapter, holder and rectangular Graduated Neutral Density filters thay can be slid up and down to match the horizon.Bracketing and merging in Photoshop is the other way.John.Please visit me at:http://www.pbase.com/johnfr/backtothebridgehttp://www.pbase.com/johnfr..

Canonfan27 wrote:.

I have a 5D, and when I shoot outdoor scenes, The skies in my photosalways turn out white! Can anyone share with me some techniques thatwill give me the blue skies that I so desperately want in my photos?If I meter the sky and set my shutter speed to properly expose it,then my subjects are underexposed. Please help me!.

It's better to under-expose than over-expose..

Learn to use your histogram. It's a bit of a pain with a dSLR, as you have to pull the camera down and look at the LCD on the back. Take a few pix until the histogram shows that the sky is NOT blown out..

Use RAW, as it allows you to bring up the shadows easily. RAW also allows you to process the file 2X...once for the sky and once for the subject...then combine them with a HDR program, like Photomatix Pro..

Use fill flash, as mentioned already..

Get out of the shade and into the sun. When both the sky and your subject are lit by the same source (the Sun), it automatically "fixes' the problem..

Put the sun behind you and the camera..

Point the camera up slightly...the sky near the gound is often a gray, hazy color..

Use a polarizing filter and rotate it to make the sky a dark as possible. It again helps to point the camera N and up, even with a polarizer..

Select the sky in PS and replace it with a blue color..

Charlie DavisNikon 5700 & Sony R1HomePage: http://www.1derful.infoBridge Blog: http://www.here-ugo.com/BridgeBlog/..

Check this:.

Http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-metering.htm.

The entire website is extremely useful for photographers of all levels...

Becksi wrote:.

Have you tried using a (circular) polarizer?.

DSLRs need circular polarizers. For anu other cameras, linear polarizers are more effective, and they are a lot cheaper..

If all esle fails, a little post processing can blue up your sky.Joel Orlinsky.

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A circular polarizer will not amazingly properly expose a sky if you are metering off a subject standing in the shade. The whole science of photography is controlling all light entering the camera. If the subject has less light reflecting off of it than the sky in the background, you would need to either move the subject into more light or add flash to be nearer the exposure for the sky..

If you are shooting a landscape, then by all means try a graduated neutral density filter. But, if you have a person standing in the shot whose upper body is above the grad line of the filter, their face will be darker than their feet..

Forget about all the fancy postprocessing options in photoshop or hdr shots. Learn to use a camera manually and control light the way it was done in film days. This is an issue with balancing light and it the whole art of photography. There are times that filters work, such as a circular polarizer, but the filter has the same drop in exposure across the entire image, but it reduces glare and increases color saturation. It will not fix the issue of getting a blue sky behind a person standing in shade when you are metering off the person in the shade... too much exposure latitude, and thus a white sky.Lyle Collins.

Http://www.flickr.com/photos/lyleuga..