How to do it right - sunrise! Help please.

[ronlane]

Okay, so I drive to work going East, so I get to see a LOT of great sun rises. I am having trouble getting a picture that I am happy with. These are as close as I've come and I feel like I put a ton in PP with them to get them this far.

Can someone please help give me ideas. I am most happy with 1, then 3 then 2.

1.


IMG_5003 1 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

2.


IMG_5002 1 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

3.


IMG_4995 1 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

 

[Frequency]

Sky has more details in #2 and #3; actually i like them more

 

[poker_jake]

Looks like the FAA academy, just got back after a month down there. Nice shots.

 

[DGMPhotography]

Yeah, these (imo) have potential to be good shots. The second one has the best composure to me, most closely following the rule of thirds. The lower exposure makes the sky look better, but unfortunately, it also eliminates any detail from the landscape. Your best bet here would be to park your car, get out. Put up a tripod, take a few exposures and come up with an HDR. I would really like to see number 2 as a true HDR. Here is a tonemapped image to give you an idea of what it may look like.

 

[FanBoy]

I like the potential in #3, with the use of utility poles. The radar dome (?) is a bit unusual and unrecognizable at first to the casual viewer. Also get much closer.

I agree with DGM to use HDR with any of them if you can.

 

[ronlane]

Looks like the FAA academy, just got back after a month down there. Nice shots.

Jake, that is where it's at.

Thank you all for the comments. I feel that I am struggling with morning pictures, so all of the ideas will help. I will have to try it again soon with the tripod and do a HDR set of pictures.

 

[ronlane]

Here is #2 and my attempt at HDR. Does it help any?


IMG_5002 hdr 2 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

 

[cgipson1]

HDR is nice if you want more detail in the foreground... but often that is just a distraction on a good sunset or sunrise photo. However, all the HDR's I have see here have ugly pastel blue skies.. don't look like Sunrises to me.

How is this.. I purposely darkened it up, and hit it with a little saturation in the right places....



You can get really nice Sunrises with just long exposures.. or with regular exposures if you meter correctly. Underexposure gives greater saturation of color.. much richer depth of color.

Bellize Sunrise | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Belize Sunrise Long Exposure | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[DGMPhotography]

Here is #2 and my attempt at HDR. Does it help any?


IMG_5002 hdr 2 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

Looks better, but for some reason the grass doesn't look right to me....

 

[DGMPhotography]

HDR is nice if you want more detail in the foreground... but often that is just a distraction on a good sunset or sunrise photo. However, all the HDR's I have see here have ugly pastel blue skies.. don't look like Sunrises to me.

How is this.. I purposely darkened it up, and hit it with a little saturation in the right places....

View attachment 18409

You can get really nice Sunrises with just long exposures.. or with regular exposures if you meter correctly. Underexposure gives greater saturation of color.. much richer depth of color.

Bellize Sunrise | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Belize Sunrise Long Exposure | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Personally, I like more realistic shots. Whether or not your viewers will know it or not, you will know it. That's just an integrity thing with me, plus, your edit just looks dirty to me. But that's just my opinion, and that's not saying much! XD

 

[cgipson1]

HDR is nice if you want more detail in the foreground... but often that is just a distraction on a good sunset or sunrise photo. However, all the HDR's I have see here have ugly pastel blue skies.. don't look like Sunrises to me.

How is this.. I purposely darkened it up, and hit it with a little saturation in the right places....



You can get really nice Sunrises with just long exposures.. or with regular exposures if you meter correctly. Underexposure gives greater saturation of color.. much richer depth of color.

Bellize Sunrise | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Belize Sunrise Long Exposure | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Personally, I like more realistic shots. Whether or not your viewers will know it or not, you will know it. That's just an integrity thing with me, plus, your edit just looks dirty to me. But that's just my opinion, and that's not saying much! XD

You call that quasi-HDR stuff you posted realistic? You must live in Timothy Leary's world then!

Integrity??? yea.. sure!

 

[ronlane]

HDR is nice if you want more detail in the foreground... but often that is just a distraction on a good sunset or sunrise photo. However, all the HDR's I have see here have ugly pastel blue skies.. don't look like Sunrises to me.

How is this.. I purposely darkened it up, and hit it with a little saturation in the right places....

View attachment 18409

You can get really nice Sunrises with just long exposures.. or with regular exposures if you meter correctly. Underexposure gives greater saturation of color.. much richer depth of color.

Bellize Sunrise | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Belize Sunrise Long Exposure | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I understand that you want to capture the sunrise or sunset, but isn't the goal to capture it as close to how you see it? If so, then no offense, but my eyes did now see this sunrise as dark as this picture. Actually as I recall #1 was pretty close but still a little underexposed but I feel that I had to do that in order to not blow out the sun.

Thank you for mentioning the long exposure, I will have to get up a little earlier and try that to see.

 

[cgipson1]

HDR is nice if you want more detail in the foreground... but often that is just a distraction on a good sunset or sunrise photo. However, all the HDR's I have see here have ugly pastel blue skies.. don't look like Sunrises to me.

How is this.. I purposely darkened it up, and hit it with a little saturation in the right places....



You can get really nice Sunrises with just long exposures.. or with regular exposures if you meter correctly. Underexposure gives greater saturation of color.. much richer depth of color.

Bellize Sunrise | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Belize Sunrise Long Exposure | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I understand that you want to capture the sunrise or sunset, but isn't the goal to capture it as close to how you see it? If so, then no offense, but my eyes did now see this sunrise as dark as this picture. Actually as I recall #1 was pretty close but still a little underexposed but I feel that I had to do that in order to not blow out the sun.

Thank you for mentioning the long exposure, I will have to get up a little earlier and try that to see.

I have no way of knowing what it looked like to you. Realism is good, but may not always produce the best image. If you see a sunset... and expose normally for it, that is one thing. If you underexpose a stop or two... it will be much more lovely, and still the same sunset. There are many ways to capture shots like this.. and due to the limited dynamic range of our cameras, sometime a little post, or a long exposure can make a big difference. So can HDR if done properly.. the HDR above is NOT done properly. A technique called LDR (exposure fusion, with no tone mapping) is probably much more suited to sunsets / sunrises, at least for my tastes. I have several 9 shot sets I shot on a recent trip to Belize, and will post those soon.. as I find time to process them.

Do this.... setup your camera on a tripod. Meter the sunrise / sunset.. shoot at 0. Then also do a shot at -1, -2, -3 and -4... and look at them and see what you think.

 

[DGMPhotography]

HDR is nice if you want more detail in the foreground... but often that is just a distraction on a good sunset or sunrise photo. However, all the HDR's I have see here have ugly pastel blue skies.. don't look like Sunrises to me.

How is this.. I purposely darkened it up, and hit it with a little saturation in the right places....


You can get really nice Sunrises with just long exposures.. or with regular exposures if you meter correctly. Underexposure gives greater saturation of color.. much richer depth of color.

Bellize Sunrise | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Belize Sunrise Long Exposure | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Personally, I like more realistic shots. Whether or not your viewers will know it or not, you will know it. That's just an integrity thing with me, plus, your edit just looks dirty to me. But that's just my opinion, and that's not saying much! XD

You call that quasi-HDR stuff you posted realistic? You must live in Timothy Leary's world then!

Integrity??? yea.. sure!

I did not say what I posted was realistic. I am trying to refrain from pure tonemapping now. I was just providing to the OP an example of what it may be close to looking like if he did an HDR. HDR does not change things how they are, it just puts everything into focus at once, hence "High Dynamic Range," so that you can see everything in the image exposed perfectly at the same time. What you did altered how it really was, changing the colors, etc.

 

[DGMPhotography]

HDR is nice if you want more detail in the foreground... but often that is just a distraction on a good sunset or sunrise photo. However, all the HDR's I have see here have ugly pastel blue skies.. don't look like Sunrises to me.

How is this.. I purposely darkened it up, and hit it with a little saturation in the right places....



You can get really nice Sunrises with just long exposures.. or with regular exposures if you meter correctly. Underexposure gives greater saturation of color.. much richer depth of color.

Bellize Sunrise | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Belize Sunrise Long Exposure | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I understand that you want to capture the sunrise or sunset, but isn't the goal to capture it as close to how you see it? If so, then no offense, but my eyes did now see this sunrise as dark as this picture. Actually as I recall #1 was pretty close but still a little underexposed but I feel that I had to do that in order to not blow out the sun.

Thank you for mentioning the long exposure, I will have to get up a little earlier and try that to see.

I have no way of knowing what it looked like to you. Realism is good, but may not always produce the best image. If you see a sunset... and expose normally for it, that is one thing. If you underexpose a stop or two... it will be much more lovely, and still the same sunset. There are many ways to capture shots like this.. and due to the limited dynamic range of our cameras, sometime a little post, or a long exposure can make a big difference. So can HDR if done properly.. the HDR above is NOT done properly. A technique called LDR (exposure fusion, with no tone mapping) is probably much more suited to sunsets / sunrises, at least for my tastes. I have several 9 shot sets I shot on a recent trip to Belize, and will post those soon.. as I find time to process them.

Do this.... setup your camera on a tripod. Meter the sunrise / sunset.. shoot at 0. Then also do a shot at -1, -2, -3 and -4... and look at them and see what you think.

The above is NOT an HDR image.... it is a tonemapped image, like I said. I only recently discovered Lightroom had 2 modes, tone compressor, and exposure fusion, and for your information, I now use the exposure fusion when I do what I consider to be "real" HDRs.