Dramatic Skys 'LINK'

Sunrise and sunset generally give the most dramatic skies - the combination of strong colours and low, directional lighting is perfect for creating a photo with bags of atmosphere. Conditions around these times of day also tend to change rapidly, allowing you to capture a wide range of photos in a short period of time.

Dramatic Skys

For those times when I want a backlit dramatic sky photo, I slightly underexpose my subject so that the sky can be retained and brought back during post processing. The key to this technique is to SLIGHTLY underexpose and shoot in a RAW file format.

Having a big sun dominating the sky in your shot can produce very dramatic images. Unfortunately, shooting directly into the sun rarely works well, but if you get the right conditions you can achieve very nice results.

Using the tips covered in this tutorial should help you capture better skyscapes and landscapes with your iPhone. Always keep an eye on the weather and become aware of how the sky will appear in different conditions.

Follow Isabella Kung and learn how to dissect and paint a dramatic sky and landscape using several watercolor painting techniques, with emphasis on the variegated wash, a specific wet-on-wet watercolor technique. Want to watch the video version? This watercolor technique is also taught at our Beeblys WatercolorPainting.com.

That said, capturing a dramatic sky in-camera is trickier than it seems. When the sky is lighter than the land, your camera will typically overexpose it, turning a brilliant blue into a vague and unexciting gray or white.

The second filter landscape photographers should use to capture more dramatic skies is a polarizing filter. Polarizing filters work by adjusting the reflected light coming through your camera lens. Since the sky is blue because of this reflected light, turning the front of the polarizing filter will adjust the intensity of the blues in the sky. Since polarizing filters only affect reflected light, they can still be used when mountains or buildings make the horizon uneven. Polarizing filters are also great for enhancing or removing reflections on water or other shiny surfaces.

If you were already familiar with the previously explained technique, and/or if you want to take your editing further, here are some more tips and advices about how to use the graduated filter to create dramatic skies.

Exposure is the most straightforward slider to use to create dramatic skies. If your sky is overexposed (too bright), drag the slider to the left to make the sky darker and bring out the details. If your sky is underexposed (too dark), drag the slider to the right to make the sky lighter.

If there are clouds in your sky, you could add some contrast to really make them pop and amplify the difference between the sky and the clouds; this will create a dramatic sky. If you feel your picture has already enough points of interest, you could decrease the contrast to soften the sky.

Adding some clarity to the graduated filter will help create a more dramatic sky by making the clouds pop more (the added clarity will amplify the areas where the clouds touch the sky).

Beginning and advanced students will enjoy this five-day technique-based class focused on creating dramatic landscapes with special attention paid to the sky. Working from photo reference, students will explore the use of sensitive and effective strokes to manipulate paint with a brush and pallet knife. Students will explore texture and depth while creating dramatic landscape paintings.

3 trees under dramatic skies. Award winning fine art nature and landscape photography and art photography with cloudscapes and trees. The series presents dramatic storm clouds or cloudscapes, fascinating colorful sunset cloud formations and other sky and weather sceneries in a minimal landscape. This project is the most time-intensive series. Since 2011 the artist spent many, many hours by visiting the panoramic hot spots around his hometown nuremberg to capture the one perfect dramatic moment. German landscape photographer Thomas Finkler also features stunning dramatic photographic images like rays of light shining through clouds, colorful twilight skies, bad weather clouds, thunderclouds or just the white cloud in the deep blue sky.

The images from the series "dramatic skies color" are exclusively printed on "hahnemuhle fine art baryta" (Hahnemühle FineArt Baryta). One of the archival quality artist papers from the prestigious same name german paper manufactory. 041b061a72