# In camera blanking out a grey sky



## 35Milly (May 29, 2019)

I was watching a professional photograher taking several outdoor pictures under a grey sky, full cloud cover. I think he was using a Canon 7D. 
He showed me its Monitor image and I remarked that it was showing the sky as black. He was using a setting in his camera that deliberately blacked out the sky so a blue one could be edited in afterwards.  
I should have asked at the time but how was he doing this? Seems a really neat trick!


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## clee01l (May 30, 2019)

I think the process that you want is clipping.  You can turn on or off the clipping indicators in your camera (most cameras) like you can in LR.  In LR the clipped highlights show as a bright red. 
In the camera you adjust the exposure to overexpose (clip) just the sky.  In Photoshop it is a trivial task to select the clipped area and remove it from the layer that you are working on. Then you can insert another layer behind it that is of a nice sky.


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## 35Milly (May 30, 2019)

Thanks very much. 
Lots of grey sky about now so I will try it today!


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## Johan Elzenga (May 30, 2019)

Cletus is right. The camera did not black out the sky, it was showing a warning that the sky would become pure white.


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## 35Milly (May 30, 2019)

Thanks. The neat part was that the remainder of the scene seemed to have a 'normal' exposure.
I have checked my Camera and there are no clipping settings, so it looks like if I want to try it it will have to be in LR or PS.


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## Johan Elzenga (May 30, 2019)

You seem to misunderstand this function. It’s not a ‘clipping setting’, it’s just a warning. The camera warns you that the pure black areas are going to be clipped (pure white) with this particular exposure setting. There is nothing special about that. It applies to any camera with the same settings in the same situation, your camera included. 

Each manufacturer uses its own warning method (or no warning at all). Sony cameras use ‘zebra stripes’, for example (the clipped area will have black and white stripes that seem to move).


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## 35Milly (May 30, 2019)

Thanks for your input. 
Ah I see, yes I did not understand it. 
Won't that have the tendency blow out the rest of the image? 
Obviously not to white, as the areas will not be as bright as the sky, but  definitely overexposed.
I guess if the image is recorded as RAW it can be brought back, is that what would be done?


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## Johan Elzenga (May 30, 2019)

Of course you do not want to overexpose the image. An overcast sky can easily get blown out when the rest of the image is correctly exposed, however. And raw files have a lot of exposure latitude, so a slightly overexposed image can still be corrected in Lightroom.


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## 35Milly (May 30, 2019)

I think I will have to experiment.
Thanks again


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## 35Milly (Jun 1, 2019)

Well I tried several ways to produce this effect but without success,  anything I tried overexposed the non-sky parts of the picture.
Nay suggestions welcome!


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## Johan Elzenga (Jun 1, 2019)

In Lightroom, drag the Whites slider to the right. That should overexpose an already quite bright sky. If the rest of the image gets too bright as well, then drag the Highlights slider to the left.


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## 35Milly (Jun 3, 2019)

Thanks for that but it was the 'in-camera' settings I was trying to find.
I have, after a bit of web searching, found that the zebra (stripes)/highlighting setting is not available on my model, it was added in the next generation!
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/articles/00077788
Thanks for everyone's input.


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