What is this photography phenomenon called?

[Colorado_Dave]

I am sure you have all seen it - sometimes the landscape (especially a skyline) imagery is washed out and little contrast but if you tip the gimbal downwards, it quickly increases the contrast, color, etc.
What is the name of this phenomenom so I can research it and maybe avoid it? Thanks in advance

 

[PortCanaveralFlorida]

I am sure you have all seen it - sometimes the landscape (especially a skyline) imagery is washed out and little contrast but if you tip the gimbal downwards, it quickly increases the contrast, color, etc.
What is the name of this phenomenom so I can research it and maybe avoid it? Thanks in advance

"Over Exposure" might be my first thought

 

[DanMan32]

Or under exposure for anything below the horizon, since the sky brightness would be dramatically increasing the average.
That's why I often tilt down where there's little to no sky, lock exposure, then tilt back up with some sky at top.
Only problem with this approach is parallax issue with vertical objects.

 

[Mrmund]

Auto Exposure. The camera with change the exposure based on the lighting where it's focused. When your camera is pointing at the sky it's "exposing for the brightness of the sky". When you adjust the gimbal downwards the camera readjusts for the lighting condition of the ground.
Try using the manual camera settings to so how you can control the exposure yourself and try using the HDR(high dynamic range) setting where the camera will take "the same picture" three(or more) times exposing separately for the very bright parts and the shadows and combine them into one image allowing you to see details in the sky and the ground

 

[Vegasdad]

Yes auto

 

[Cymruflyer]

It is not a phenomena it is simply the camera adjusting its auto exposure setting built into it to adjust for the light source hitting the sensor. Just like any auto exposure camera would adjust itself. For example if you were to shoot a person in bright sunlight standing against a white wall outside, with them being a small percentage of the whole scene, the camera would adjust itself for the majority of the light being thrown at it (the white wall) and expose for that, which would correctly expose the wall but probably darken the person too much.

Stick them against a black wall, and the opposite will happen, the camera will sense all that dark area and expose for it, making the person too light or over exposed. Same thing if you take a photo of someone against a light cloud sky with the sun to their back (in front of the camera), the camera will darken the sky and make the person almost a silhouette against the white sky. It is the camera's auto exposure, so the better the camera, the better it handles such lighting situations, but it can't be perfect, because no camera has the ability to expose for light and dark the way our eye sees things, the contrast is simply too much.

The way around such a situation, if taking a still image, is to bracket about five different exposures and use an HDR programme to blend all those exposures into one good one.

 

[Meta4]

Auto Exposure. The camera with change the exposure based on the lighting where it's focused. When your camera is pointing at the sky it's "exposing for the brightness of the sky". When you adjust the gimbal downwards the camera readjusts for the lighting condition of the ground.
Try using the manual camera settings to so how you can control the exposure yourself

If the problem is that the scene has a bright sky and a dark foreground, there's no magic manual setting that can solve the problem.
The solution is to be aware that the camera can't expose correctly for bright and dark in the same frame and compose the shot to allow for this and/or consider the lighting angles more.

 

[BossBob]

The imaging system, lens and sensor do not have a wide enough dynamic range to cope with both the bright sky and darker ground. This is where HDR, or High Dynamic Range modes should be used. A number of images are taken of the same subject at different exposure settings that ensure that all of the subject is correctly exposed in at least one of the images. They are then superimposed on each other and the incorrectly exposed portions of each image discarded to leave one correctly exposed, composite image. Modern cameras often have an HDR mode and software can be found to make the image manipulation easier.

 

[Cymruflyer]

The imaging system, lens and sensor do not have a wide enough dynamic range to cope with both the bright sky and darker ground. This is where HDR, or High Dynamic Range modes should be used. A number of images are taken of the same subject at different exposure settings that ensure that all of the subject is correctly exposed in at least one of the images. They are then superimposed on each other and the incorrectly exposed portions of each image discarded to leave one correctly exposed, composite image. Modern cameras often have an HDR mode and software can be found to make the image manipulation easier.

Of course, this is only useful for still images, there is no solution for video of such a scene, just to be clear for anyone reading. HDR works great for any still image. If you were wanting to keep the sky darker and have the ground lighter in the video, your only choice would be to look for a graduated ND filter that would be darker along the upper half of the filter glass and clear along the lower half with a soft blend where the two halves meet.

Of course, you then need to be sure that you are framing the scene in such a way as to keep the darker filter portion only on that lighter sky and the clear section only on the ground, or as close as possible to it. Therefore, if you are filming with most of the ground in the frame and say just 1/5th of the sky at the top, your graduated ND filter will be darkening a section of the ground leading up to the horizon, so bear that in mind since just about all, if not all graduated ND filters are evenly split half and half.

 

[Boise Jim]

One thing to do is learn how to read a histogram (it's really easy). Then, use manual exposure and read your histogram as you change the exposure. You'll get much better images this way.

 

[Cymruflyer]

One thing to do is learn how to read a histogram (it's really easy). Then, use manual exposure and read your histogram as you change the exposure. You'll get much better images this way.

This can work in most instances for still images but will not fix the problem the OP stated when doing video. Also even in still shot mode (not video) a histogram should be used as a guide and not taken as gospel because it does not always tell you the truth about what you expect to get. Learn how to read it then use it as your guide because you will see photos that you like but the histogram alone sometimes will tell you a different story.