how to avoid overblown sky ?

[just me]

Aah...now I can give you my mantra about shooting totally in manual made utilizing your live view screen, lifted from an earlier post>
"A couple of years ago when I was trying to learn all that exposure nonsense I kept believing that there had to be an easier way...well bucko, there is and it's called live view. Chimp your image in LV with your RGB histogram showing>input 2 of the 3 wanted/needed camera settings and push that histogram toward the right, but not touching the right side, using the third setting. Oh, because that histogram is jpeg based, you must first neutralize, base out, all of your "picture style" settings that you may have set for your jpeg images.
I use this technique all the time and I take the time to repeat if the light changes. Also, when I'm shooting a black dog/white snow scenario, I'll shoot a properly exposed virgin image of the snow followed by properly exposed dog romping around and blend them later in PS.
Yeah, it's sounds complicated, but rapidly becomes second nature."

I have to find out where is " live view " on my cameras, not to sure if theX100 has this, but the olympus E-M5 should have it, have to go into the menue to find this ( will do later today " ........
In the meantime I say THANK YOU for your help, for sure I will try your suggestion......

[just me]

Kathy, thank you again, I will, when next time out shopping, call into a camera shop to find out about a speed light.......

[just me]

Paul, thank you, the easy way is of course to avoid a grey sky at all, I do this mostly when I can manage this, the only good thing is about all this " overblown sky " problem, that we have here in Australia mostly blue sky's anyway........

[jcuknz]

Further to Kathy's #20 When I have thought the on-board flash will be too strong I have placed my finder over part of it to reduce its output .... my aim is to avoid 'flash' pictures but have the flash light up the dark shadows to just light shadows. You may be able to apply exposure compensation to the flash, I have mine permanently on minus one stop, in a similar manner to having EC applied to the taking of a photo. It does mean that every photo has to be edited to some degree but that is just part of the the process of making photos which I accept.

With due respect Kathy .... having the sun behind you makes for dull uninteresting photos ... it is the contrast of lighting that adds flavour ... Golden Hours etc.

and Griddi .... Live view is when you see what you are taking on the LCD or in the EVF before you take the photo unlike most DSLRs which have to take the photo to monitor the result. It is not a 'mode' to be found in the camera menu .... I suspect you have it but didn't know it was called that. All P&S and bridge cameras have it but only a few DSLRs .... Sony?
Yes the X100 has a hybrid live view and a tunnel optical viewfinder ... what do you usually use?

[RobertsMx]

I often find that the sky is overblown on a photo ( s ) of mine, how I can avoid this by setting the camera different ?

Griddi......

I shoot RAW (+JPEG), and with the excellent dynamic range sensors from even 3-4 years ago, a fairly simple approach would be to expose towards the right and recover the highlights. This image was a quick snap shot taken recently with a little morning light showing up at the top. The canyon itself was fairly poorly lit:

Sony NEX-3 w/Rokinon 8mm f/2.8 Fisheye

The JPEG did have a featureless sky, but with highlights recovered and shadows slightly lifted in LR did the trick.

[Colin Southern]

I shoot RAW (+JPEG), and with the excellent dynamic range sensors from even 3-4 years ago, a fairly simple approach would be to expose towards the right and recover the highlights.

Generally it's safer to expose the sky normally and then raise the shadows because clouds can blow an exposure very easily (even for a raw capture) whereas the large sensor dynamic range you mention generally has many stops of relatively clean darker detail.

[just me]

Generally it's safer to expose the sky normally and then raise the shadows because clouds can blow an exposure very easily (even for a raw capture) whereas the large sensor dynamic range you mention generally has many stops of relatively clean darker detail.

Thanks Colin and Manu, as soon the sky is overcast ( and it is not raining ) I will try out all the helpful tips, advise I am getting here from the members, so..... thanks again to you all !!!!!!!

Greetings,
Griddi......

[AB26]

I don't have a speedlight.......or did you mean a flashlight ?

Regards,
Griddi.....

Same thing Griddi.

[RobertsMx]

Generally it's safer to expose the sky normally and then raise the shadows because clouds can blow an exposure very easily (even for a raw capture) whereas the large sensor dynamic range you mention generally has many stops of relatively clean darker detail.

That might depend on the sensor and metering algorithm, and I suspect OM-E1/5 sensors will fall in that category. Some manufacturers seem to incorporate metering in the firmware that will make the exposure slower which will accomplish some of that shooting to the right effect. In these cases, the room to negotiate with the headroom on the highlights might be a third to a half stop less.

However, exposing for the highlights will require lifting of the (underexposed) shadows, which will invariably introduce more noise.

[HaseebM]

Paul, thank you, the easy way is of course to avoid a grey sky at all, I do this mostly when I can manage this, the only good thing is about all this " overblown sky " problem, that we have here in Australia mostly blue sky's anyway........

I too had this problem before I tried exposure compensation which worked. But what worked even better to bring out the blue contrast against white clouds was the use of "Clear" filter in Canon. Your camera may not support this download but perhaps your brand has its own? Worth a try.

[inkista]

I don't have a speedlight.......or did you mean a flashlight ?

Same thing Griddi.

Not in American usage. For us Yanks a flashlight is one of these:

[Colin Southern]

However, exposing for the highlights will require lifting of the (underexposed) shadows, which will invariably introduce more noise.

The problem is though that often one isn't exposing for (reflective) highlights anymore - they're exposing for backlighting which can be a good 3 stops higher.

Generally shadow noise damages an image less than large areas of blown cloud detail.

[jcuknz]

I have often read that "exposing for the highlights will require lifting of the [underexposed] shadows which will invariably introduce more noise"
But in practice I have never noticed this happening
but then I rarely notice noise so perhaps I am blessed with non-noise eyesight.

[Colin Southern]

I have often read that "exposing for the highlights will require lifting of the [underexposed] shadows which will invariably introduce more noise"
But in practice I have never noticed this happening

It really depends on the dynamic range of the scene being captured; if you start with a bride in a white dress - next to a groom in a dark suit then that's only around 4 stops, but if there are clouds in the sky with somewhat of an incident light component then that can add about another 3 -- generally "still OK", but if we then extend that scenario to include, say, some areas that are in shadow then that can add a few more stops again, and the scene could be up to around 10 or more stops needed - and that's where things get "interesting", depending on how the scene was initially exposed (not much room for error at that point, even with a RAW capture).

[RobertsMx]

I have often read that "exposing for the highlights will require lifting of the [underexposed] shadows which will invariably introduce more noise"
But in practice I have never noticed this happening
but then I rarely notice noise so perhaps I am blessed with non-noise eyesight.

Have you tried? Chances are you didn't notice any difference because of the viewing size. But, let us consider this situation for a moment. Identical sensor tech assumed, a high contrast condition, and identical everything else except...
Camera A: Captures image at 1/125s
Camera B: Captures image at 1/250s

What would you expect in the various tones?