Getting the balance right - when taking photos how do you ensure the sky comes out blue?

When I take photos of people or an object in front of me, quite often the sky comes out white instead of blue. If I point the camera at the sky then it does come out blue but then everything else looks too dark. How do I get the balance? I have a "point and shoot" compact digital camera.

Your camera has an internal metering system which computes the best exposure to take the photo. Apprarently, it appears that the metering is center-weighted which means that your camera computes based on the center spot. SInce the daylight sky is normally the brightest subject, if you meter based on the sky, all other subjects will be rendered dark (shutter speed is too fast). The opposite is true. If you meter based on, let's say, your mates, the blue sky could be rendered pale since your mates are much darker than the sky (slower shutter speed will overexpose the blue sky and turn it pale grey).

Check if your camera has a compensation adjustment - (the one that shows - and +). If your picture turns a blue sky pale, adjust compensation to negative until you get the blue sky that you want. However, if your primary subject turns very dark because of of this, turn on the flash to brighten them up. If the flash doesnt seem to light them up, just go closer to the subject.

The resulting photo is really a compromise of a lot of factors and half of the time, you need to make manual adjustments to get the shot that you want.

Be careful with you exposures; didgital cameras are easy to flood and what the eye sees as blue will be a very pale color usually. Play with your exposure settings and shoot darker. Then, if you need to get the rest of the image up in brightness, use photoshop: select the sky, invert the selection, then use the curves tool to brighten the other details.

You'll find you'll get a truer richer blue in the twilight when the hard light has run out of the sky.

You can also use a circular polarizing filter. They help bring out richer colors by cutting the "haze". Oops. You said compact digital. Sorry. I was thinking SLR camera.

You can still use a polarizing filter even though you have a point and shoot camera. You'll have to hold it up in front of the lens, but it will still work.

I have a point and shoot digital camera. Don't ever let anyone tell you cannot take great pictures with one. First, you should always read your user's manual until you become familiar with it and then read it again. My camera is probably not that different than yours, it is an hp 435. That said, I would use your manual to troubleshoot the problem. Basically, mine says to use your exposure compensation or EV to decrease or increase the exposure so that dark objects will not look washed out and light-colored objects will not look muddy, make sure that your subject is within the flashes working distance, or wait for natural, available lighting conditions to improve, and lastly try taking the picture from a different angle. Your camera should have a help section built in.