sun shooting settings

chris82

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I bought a new tripod,polarizer and camera bag today so Im going to shoot the sunrise tomorrow with my new tripod.Would someone recomend some settings for this type of shooting.I would idealy like to use my cam in full manual mode and also which white balance should I use?Thanks
 
Shoot in RAW...then your white balance won't really matter too much. Just keep it on auto.

For sunsets...it really depends what you want to capture. You will not be able to expose for the sun/sky and the foreground at the same time...so you have to choose.

One method is to aim the camera at an area of sky near the sun...but without the sun in the frame. Lock in that exposure and recompose.
 
this is very educational haha. I am watching this thread :)

for the sky / foreground exposure i guess you could try those nifty gnd filters which block out half your lens.

or, maybe you can try the hdr thing where you combine multiple exposures (i have no idea if this will work cos i dont know what i'm talking about). but i guess you gotta be quick cos the sun moves fast in the sky!
 
I wouldn't think the polarizer would be the best choice for this situation. Generally the polarizer will work best when the subject, your camera and the sun make a 90 degree angle. I've used a polarizer for sunsets before and it took out most of the color. You might have better luck than me but you might want to experiment a bit before blowing a lot of time with the polarizer.

I would think a graduated neutral density filter would work a bit better. It'll block out light from the top half of the frame allowing for a more even exposure (avoiding white highlights / black shadows).

I think what Mike is getting at is if you don't have any filters... what you'd want to do is set it to aperture priority then using a spot / center weighted meter, read the settings off of the sky and foreground seperately. Mount that thing on a tripod and take two shots... one with the sky settings and one with the foreground settings. That would give you two shots that properly expose both halves of the shot (similiar to the affect a grad ND filter would do). Then you can layer those shots into photoshop... add a layer mask... gradient... and you'll end up with an evenly exposed shot.
 
I think what Mike is getting at is if you don't have any filters... what you'd want to do is set it to aperture priority then using a spot / center weighted meter, read the settings off of the sky and foreground separately. Mount that thing on a tripod and take two shots... one with the sky settings and one with the foreground settings. That would give you two shots that properly expose both halves of the shot (similiar to the affect a grad ND filter would do). Then you can layer those shots into photoshop... add a layer mask... gradient... and you'll end up with an evenly exposed shot.
That's not quite what I meant...but that will work. It's not necessary to get a huge dynamic range with every shots...sometime a dark foreground with a silhouette is nice. The point that I was making...is that if you just point the camera at the sunset and snap the photo...not only will the foreground be dark...but the rest of the sky will probably be too dark as well. So when trying to figure out what settings to use...meter off of the sky without the sun in the viewfinder.

Depending on how your custom functions are set...this might work. Point the camera at the sky near the sun (but without the sun)...then hold the shutter button half way down....then recompose your image and snap it. Watch your settings...if they change when you recompose...you will need to lock your exposure another way. One way would be to use manual mode...meter the sky and adjust the setting to centre then needle...then recompose and shoot.
 

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