Mountain Scenery Problem

[60sdog]

I have a new Monolta Dimage Xt and recently took some mountain photos; however, several turned out with washed-out, hazy mountains in the background. Also, in some of them, the blue in the sky was a strange shade of blue. I am posting several of the photos in hopes that someone will have a suggestion as to how to correct these problems.

Thanks in advance for your ideas!

[seifen]

hmm... something seems to be wrong with this post... can you repost?

[anew]

from what i can see here, it seems as though you are shooting towards the sun, or near enough towards it, which will give you exposure problems. Also, you are shooting a rather dark foreground with a bright background and the camera's exposure readings will not be able to handle the difference between the two......in other words, the light reading is taken from the foreground and so the background is too light (over exposed) where as if you took a reading from the background the foreground would be too dark (under exposed). I don't think there is any real way to allieviate this problem with the camera you are using, as you don't have much control over exposure settings etc.

I know i haven't given you much to go on here, and picked out problems without giving you answers, but perhaps someone else would be able to help you better, as i know little about this camera, and what it can do.

The only advice i can give you is shoot with the sun behind you, and try to stand in a place with a more even spread of light, (i.e. not under trees, where the camera can't cope with extreme dark and light differences)

hope this helps
cheers
anew.

[60sdog]

Thanks, I think you've hit on something, since I was shooting toward the sun and was in the shade. I hope someone will give me some suggestions about how to adjust for this with my Minolta Dimage xt.

[EOSThree]

If you can mount filters on your camera a split neutral density filter would help here. Waiting until a different time of day. Exposing for the highlights and then exposing for the shadows on two different pictures would help, although difficult with moving(human)foreground subjects. I doubt I would have even tried the photo you did, I would have looked for a spot with better light.

[payn817]

I googled your camera, and could not find out if you have any manual controls. However, my understanding is that it does not accept lens kits (converters, adaptor tubes, etc.). If you have exposure bracketing, you could shoot that way, and then layer the shots in PS (or equivalent). You could adjust for each picture manually if the camera allows, but it seems to be easier using a "burst". Then again, I don't shoot this type of thing and have only researched and read other posts with similar problems. You may want to research my reply.

[60sdog]

What a great message board! Thanks to all of you for the help you've taken the time to share with me.