Please help! Need advice!

[islandgrandma]

I have been taking pictures for many years, but just use automatic settings - don't know much about how to use settings. Here is my problem: Whenever I take pictures of the sunrise, the brightest parts always show as yellow on the picture instead of the pink or orange that I see with my eyes. Is there any way to eliminate the yellow?

 

[photo1x1.com]

Hi,
I´m afraid sunsets are one of the (in my opinion) very few things that looked much better on film than digital. Also I very often see images taken witch cheaper cameras, or even smartphones looking much better than those taken with DSLRs.
One thing you can do is change your white balance setting, and maybe darken the image a bit, using exposure compensation.
However to get the best out of your sunset pictures, in my experience, it is best to shoot in RAW format (I guess you shoot jpg) and try to get the best out of your image with a raw-processor. Usually one should have been in the box of your camera - on a CD, or via downloadlink.

Which camera do you use? Maybe we can help you better if we know which model you shoot with.

 

[Desi]

Try setting your white balance to daylight. Auto white balance will often change your colors. Also, you can deepen the colors by underexposing the image. Do that either manually, or by using the exposure compensation button and dialing it down.

There is a lot of trial and error in learning to shoot sunsets/sunrises.....and it is hard to get "true" colors as your eye sees them.

 

[islandgrandma]

Thank you for your responses. My camera is a Nikon Coolpix 8200. (One of the "cheaper" ones, I'm sure!) And my iPhone 6s does the same thing! I've tried adjusting the color with a photo editing program (iPhoto),
and was not able to improve it much that way. I'll look at my instruction manual and see what I can find about
white balance. Any other ideas would be appreciated, as well. Thanks again.

 

[Derrel]

I second using "Daylight" or "Fine Weather" white balance for sunrises or sunsets, since AUTO WB tends to mess things up and "correct away" the beautiful hue of sunrise and sunset times.

 

[photo1x1.com]

Thank you for your responses. My camera is a Nikon Coolpix 8200. (One of the "cheaper" ones, I'm sure!) And my iPhone 6s does the same thing! I've tried adjusting the color with a photo editing program (iPhoto),
and was not able to improve it much that way. I'll look at my instruction manual and see what I can find about
white balance. Any other ideas would be appreciated, as well. Thanks again.

You are welcome
Well yes, that is one of the "cheaper" cameras I was referring to. I also wonder regarding your iphone because I have seen amazing iphone sunet images. Maybe you just didn´t have the right sunset yet.
look at page 68 of your camera manual (you can download it here too ) for exposure compensation and in the reference section of the manual on page 30 seems to be the description on white balance which seems a little poor . Next time just try a few different white balance and exposure settings. Unfortunately your camera doesn´t seem to have an option to shoot RAW files, but that way you can try to get the best image you can. You can always delete the ones you don´t like so shoot - adjust - shoo - adjust - shoot - adjust shoot

 

[weepete]

Underexposing slightly can bring out the colours in a sunset.

 

[islandgrandma]

Hi again - and thanks again! I tried the "Daylight" white balance this morning - not on a colorful sunrise, but a
gray one with a little bit of color in a break in the clouds. The daylight setting made everything too blue - the automatic setting did a better job on the color, but still with a little yellow at the brightest spot. I guess I'll try the "underexposure" method next time we have a good sunrise. I will also try the "shoot - adjust - shoot - adjust - shoot" method! Thanks again for your suggestions!

 

[The_Traveler]

You've come up against the unfortunate fact that taking pictures requires eithar a specific recipe for every conceivably different situation and lighting or learning how things work, how the camera sees light and understanding how to adjust the settings yourself.

Cameras are pretty smart but they don't know everything and somethings require more help than just pressing that button.

 

[kbklarry]

I have been taking pictures for many years, but just use automatic settings - don't know much about how to use settings. Here is my problem: Whenever I take pictures of the sunrise, the brightest parts always show as yellow on the picture instead of the pink or orange that I see with my eyes. Is there any way to eliminate the yellow?

Hello,

Unfortunately, the only hope for catching a good sunset is to use a DSLR along with a special so-called graduated filter made for sunsets. The real difficulty with a sunset is that the sky is much brighter than the landscape usually included in the sunset photo and a camera cannot record both the darker and lighter parts in the same image. The picture I took in the link below shows the result of getting a proper exposure with a sunset graduated filter, also known as a "reverse graduated filter".

https://flic.kr/p/Mnvfhz

As one poster said, "raw" format images are a must. Another option is making several shots in quick succession (clouds move) at different exposures and combining them with special editing software. Also, Photoshop Lightroom has a built-in graduated filter which can be a big help.

However, with your simple camera, the only way to improve your images is the suggestion by one poster to underexpose the sky and let the landscape below come out very dark.