Camera Labs

Most of the time when I take pics outdoors sky and whites(walls, swans) get overexposed - they start blinking on my D80 screen
Any way to fix that?

Tune down the exposure compensation a bit (try 0,3 or 0,7 for starters)

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Assuming you are not shooting in full manual mode.

Ben
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When in doubt..... Press the shutter.

AP mode. Set EV too -.5, but then everything else gets darker
Is there a way to fix it in Photoshop Elements?

When the info is lost, it is lost. However, if it's marginal, you can get some back by using the shadow/highlight tool and use highlight recovery.

Using the negative compensation will help you keep that detail, but does make everything else darker. You can then use shadow recovery to bring the dark areas back, but quite likely it will increase noise too.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

I hear neutral density filters are good for sky's. And As for just taking a picture of like a wall or a sway, tune down the exposure, its better to be able to lighten it later in PP than to lose that part forever.

You can try lowering your exposure compensation or take photos with your back to the sun. There are also polarizing filters to make skies more blue or ND filters to allow for a slower shutter speed without overexposing everything.

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Hello, my name is Jay.
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That would be a graduated neutral density filter

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Indeed, Graduated ones,thanks for correcting me =D. That means you'd have to get a filter system. I hear the cokin system works well.

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Gear:Nikon d40, 18-55mm,35mm f1.8!
Wishlist:sigma 70-200 hsm2, a 50 or 85 of some sort, and a d7000

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A graduated ND filter can be used to bring down the sky. Another option is Exposure Bracketing.

This basically takes multiple images usually three. You can configure the camera to take 3 images, one at the indicated exposure and then one under exposed and one over exposed.

In photoshop you can then use the sky from the under exposed image and the foreground detail from the standard exposure.

Do a search on the web there are plenty of tutorials/walkthroughs of this process. Consult your camera manual for details of how to setup exposure bracketing.

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Canon EOS 400D, EF-S 18-55mm, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, EF 50mm f/1.8 MK I, EF-S 10-22mm, EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM, EF 28mm f/1.8, EF 85mm f/1.8
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Panasonic GF3, Panasonic 20mm f/1.7, Olympus 45mm f/1.8

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Other have mentioned GND, and bracketing.

Another suggestion which helps a little is to shoot in RAW. It helps retain a little more detail, and enables you to get it back in post processing.

I would choose a polarizer over a ND Grad... or just -.3.

I shoot vivid +1 with -.3 exposure compensation and get great blue skies.

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Nikon D90
18-55mm VR
55-200mm VR
ML-L3 Wireless release

http://www.flickr.com/photos/97752536@N00/

You will lose 1 to 2 stops of light with a polarizer on yoru lens though, and the effect differs in your angle to the sun, and has some other side effects, which can be both benefits or annoyances

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

Yeah, true but if over exposure is your problem that might be what you want... The worst thing I can see with a polarizer is the unnatural gradient it can produce if you turn the filter too far...

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Nikon D90
18-55mm VR
55-200mm VR
ML-L3 Wireless release

http://www.flickr.com/photos/97752536@N00/

A polarizer filter will help, depending on the situation. Otherwise, a Grad ND filter can do wonders. I have a Cokin, which holds 2 stops of light on the top.

An HDR can help you blend bracketed images together to have a rich dynamic range, but it has lots of requirements (shoot mostly on a tripod, use the same aperture and ISO setting, ghosting of moving objects, etc) and a filter will probably be much easier.

But basically, the way I get richer and correctly-exposed skies is by using either a polarizer or a Grad ND.

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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f/4.0 L