I thought "blown out" means the detail is lost, generally not recoverable..just gone. Expose for highlights only and watch detail in shadow be gone..not to be found. Shadow appears more forgiving than highlights when improperly exposed, however. I am not against deliberately making the background blow out when all I really want there is nothing but light, for effect in some particular image. As for the buildings and crane with sky, the shot looks fine on this pc and pretty much as I would expect to see it. Now, how would it do in bw rendering?