Fill a boring sky with something
Thursday 13 November 2025, 16:08 by Nando Harmsen | 1,530 views | 2 commentsThis article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.
Do you have a boring sky in a landscape? Leave the sky out of the frame. Or fill the sky with something in the landscape.
A beautiful sky looks great in a landscape photo. But you do not always get a beautiful sky. Sometimes the sky is boring and uninteresting. You can decide not to take the photo and come back later. Or you can solve the problem.
One solution is to keep the uninteresting sky out of the frame. This produces a very different kind of photo. In fact, this solution involves photographing 'something else' in the landscape.
It can be done differently. Do you want a composition that requires the sky to be in the frame? Then choose an element that can fill the sky.
A tree offers many possibilities for this. Choose a spot where the leaves and branches fill the boring sky. You have plenty of freedom to adjust the shape of the filling to what can be seen in the landscape.
Take the time to find the best spot, so that the leaves in the foreground are shown in the most beautiful way possible. This foreground also adds extra depth.
For these photos, I experimented with a colour gradient (cyan/yellow), but I am still not sure whether it looks good. What do you think?
About the author
Nando Harmsen has been photographing for more than 40 years. He specialises in wedding photography and landscape photography. Nando also gives talks, workshops, masterclasses and photo trips, and regularly reviews new and interesting equipment.
You might also like
-
Landscape photography with a boring skyby Nando Harmsen
-
Khanoptic KineticGlass, a filter filled with liquidby Elja Trum
-
Making a Solar Eclipse Collage in Photoshopby Nando Harmsen
-
Spring in pictures - photos from our Photofacts Academy communityby Nando Harmsen
-
Autumn is coming again. Five ideas for photographingby Nando Harmsen
-
Photograph autumn, now is the timeby Elja Trum
2 comments
-
Liesbeth Verkade wrote on Tuesday 18 November 2025 at 13:07
| reply
Dag Nando. Heel eerlijk gezegd ben ik niet heel enthousiast over het kleurverloop dat je hebt gekozen. Voor mij zou een 'gewone' zwart-wit foto denk ik beter voldoen.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet. -
Nando
wrote on Tuesday 18 November 2025 at 14:14
| reply
Dat kan. Zoiets is een kwestie van smaak en de keuze van de fotograaf.
This comment was written in another language and has not been translated yet.
Maar ik ben zelf ook niet enthousiast.
Echter, je moet soms gewoon dingen uitproberen. Soms werken ze, soms niet. In dit geval niet.
Have your say
Please note: Articles older than a week can only be commented on by signed-in visitors.Would you still like to comment? sign in or create a free account.
Elja Trum
Photofacts; everything to do with photography!
Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about PhotofactsPhotofacts is made possible in part by
