Hello,
I like doing novice photography as a hobby and have encountered a problem when I take landscape shots. Although the sky looks blue and beautiful in real life, when I take a shot the sky often looks overcast and distractingly bright. I try to shoot at an angle away from the sun. I have tried different settings on my camera, but am probably missing something. I am using a Nikon Coolpix L100, and don't have Photoshop but do have Photofilter. Is there something I can try either with shooting or editing to fix this? Thanks for any advice,
Raynie

Time of day is very important. When are you trying to take your shots. Most landscapes are shot in the first few hours or last few hours of the day.

Firstly David (zunazet) is right. Also you can use a circular polarizing filter to solve this problem physically. I recommend you to use a polarizing filter before using any editing application.

You don't have to pay this Photoshop thingy. Use The Gimp for your photo editing and handling. The Gimp is free software, free (libre) for everybody to use as they whish. It is said The Gimp is as capable as PS. I don't know because I did not use PS. I do use The Gimp, it comes by installation of my operating system, Mandriva Linux, along with many good photography applications. Possibily you use some kind of Windows and The Gimp has a Windows port too. It must not be difficult to download and install The Gimp.

http://www.gimp.org/

Tanju

Hi Raynie. Perhaps the tips offered at this site will be of interest to you;

Tips Taking Landscape Photos with SLR

I also hear that "The Gimp", as was suggested by Tanju (previous post), is a great and free alternative to Photoshop. I occasionally use Photofiltre, but it is quite limited.

Hi Raynie, a few tips I have learned - use Aperture Priority if you have it on your camera - the larger the number the smaller the aperture and better the depth of field. Also as suggested by Tanuu above a polarizer is very good for increasing depth of colour. If possible take the photograph with the sun behind you which will increase the quality immensely. If you have the ability to set one focus point, then try using one focus point and point it at the horizon. The camera will capture one third in front of the focal point and two thirds beyond (I think that is correct) - these work for me. Hope these tips are of some help. Patti

Raynie, Patti's advice is top knotch. She has always been very generous with her advice and has been a huge help to me.

If I may add to her thought, I would add the suggestion of using either a tripod or a monopod. You can never be "too steady." ~~ John

I too don't have Photoshop Raynie but use three independent software packages including PhotoFiltre. A polarizing lens is very good at reducing glare, & is physically rotated to suit conditions.

You've been given some good advice above, experiment, & have fun. (o:

rhelms- I would also agree with zunazet that the time of day is important and and elektronist about trying a circular polarized filter. I myself am also a novice and hobby phototaker and a circular polarized filters can do amazing things to the sky color and make other colors pop. They are easy to use, and fairly inexepensive. They also help to reduce glare off glass and water. Here is an example of a shot a did with a circular polarized filter http://www.caedes.net/Zephir.cgi?lib=Caedes::Infopage&image=antonia02-1277351217.jpg Here is an example of 2 shots one with a fliter and one without so you can see the difference http://home.comcast.net/~NikonD70/GeneralTopics/Polarizing_Filter/Be_Not_Afraid.htm

Polarizer won't do anything pointing directly to or away from the sun. Use a ND filter.Poloriser is only really effective when the sun is either on your right or left shoulder..ND Filter will let you fire off directly into the sun or away from it..You would need at least a 3 stop filter..Polarisers are great for bringing out the detail in water,That is lakes ponds and the like ..Waterfalls require an ND Filter..Which effectively stops the water coming over the fall getting blown highlights at slow shutter speeds.....

Cameras can only record a limited range of energy values (not the perfect word combination, I'm totally winging it right now) whereas your eyes appear to see a broader range. So while you may see the nice green grass and bright blue sky just fine, your camera sees nice green grass and a really bright boring looking sky or it sees some ugly dark grass and a nice blue sky.

In terms of the solution, polarizing and GND filters effectively do the same thing, which is darken the sky so that the difference in contrast between the sky and the ground is less.

How they go about darkening the sky is different. A polarizing filter removes the polarized light that bounces off the particles in the atmosphere. A graduated ND filter darkens whatever portion of the image.

Another solution that was not presented is to take bracketed photos and later merge them together in ______ using your method of choice.

On the other hand, Photoshop can do some ridiculous things.