Make dull skies pop

Simple techniques to add a natural-looking boost when the light doesn't produce the most interesting sky in your landscapes

- James Abbott

Before

In landscape photography, images are often divided into two equally important parts - the sky and the land. While we all know that shooting around sunrise and sunset has the greatest chance of experiencing the most dramatic and interesting light and sky, shooting at these times isn't always possible for several reasons. This certainly doesn't mean that you shouldn't shoot at other times of the day - you should take photos whenever you see something that interests you, even if the light and sky aren't perfect.

To combat some of the issues you may experience when shooting outside of golden hour, we're going to look at four techniques that will make dull and difficult skies look more interesting. The aim is to maintain a natural-looking result using an image with a partially clouded blue sky. We won't be performing miracles here, but some of these techniques will definitely help you in the future.

1 Deepen the blue sky