One the hardest images to make is the dramatic landscape. We have all been there. Great vista, Great sky. Big white clouds, or clouds in a glowering dark mass, or wispy fog…it is often the sky that makes the shot. Who wants an amazing vista with a clear blue sky…nothing to look at in the top half of the image?
Invariably exposing for the vista, for good color and detail in the land and foreground, produces a totally washed out sky, and exposing for the sky produces a dark, dense, landscape. Even when exposure values for sky and land are fairly balanced…as they may be on a bright sunny day with big puffy white clouds, you know you going to lose the detail in the cloud highlights.
