Sunset settings 10D

[Tom Green]

I have had my 10D for just a couple of months and have yet to take any sunsets. I am going to White Sands tuesday night to rectify this. Can anyone point me in the right direction on 10D settings that might produce good results?

Your time and assitance is appreciated. :lol: :lol:

By the way the photos posted are wonderful. Hope I can do that well in the future.

[arumdevil]

A few tips, but I'm no expert.

use manual mode

Don't trust the cameras metering system or they will come out too bright - under expose a bit (although having said that you could always darken on the computer afterwards).

take a few shots and check them on the LCD to get good setings, don't blow the highlights!

finally, and this I think is the most important - SHOOT RAW


I shot a load of sunsets recently, all in JPG and most of them look really good, but some of them, especially when printed and even more so if enlarged, had some rather unsightly banding. i haven't tried any in RAW yet but I imagine it would help to minimize this.

(banding is where the transitions between the colours are not as smooth as they could be and you see "stripes" in the gradients, rather like converting photos to GIF format).

I look forward to seeing the results

[scottbergerphoto]

http://www.pbase.com/image/31607968.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/31578319.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/25457140.jpg

When I shoot sun sets, I meter off the sky lateral to the sun in Manual Mode with the sun out of the viewfinder. I then recompose my picture. I make any adjustments after that based on the histogram. The first two shots were shot JPEG, the last was shot Raw. Raw gives you more lattitiude to make exposure changes after the fact. I have shifted to shooting JPEG(10) and bracketing for tough exposures instead of Raw due to getting twice as many shots on a 1GB card then with Raw. There are those who would insist on shooting Raw. It's whatever works for you.

Regards,
Scott

[Persian-Rice]

Look up the Sunny 16 rule on google, its pretty much the #1 rule for shooting the sun.

Cheers.

[Yeager]

scottbergerphoto - What camera are you using? The only way to meter, on a 10D for instance, would be in program mode, correct? Please correct me!

[leony]

you can meeter in any "creative" (i.e. non-icon mode) mode on 10D. look at the scale in lower/right of viewfinder. the fake digital "arrow." set to manual and start spinning - floow and cieling lights work best. you'll see the arrow move as light amount changes. if Av, Tv, P modes the exposure will be changing and M only the arrow will be moving and you'll need to adjust exposure by turning dials.

[Yeager]

yeah i suppose. I meant when you take a 35mm and it tells you what it should be. This is a little different but thanks for the response.

[mjordan]

The two important things to remember are... Sunrise is from the East and Sunsets are to the West. Keep em straight and you should do ok. :lol:


Actually, the metering in the 10D works just fine. Although once you get a reading from the place you want to meter from, it might be a good idea to put in in manual if that spot is not where your focusing point will be at. But remember at sunset the light is going to change pretty fast, so you might have to re-meter several times. And check your historgram.

Also, if you want to darken the sky, under expose or meter closer to where the brightest spot in the sky is without aiming at the sun. If you want to bring out the forground/land area, meter on that area. If you want both darker saturated sky and dark land area with detail, take two pictures, one metered for the sky and one for the land, and layer them together in Photoshop afterwards.

Don't forget to take your camera out of manual when you are done are you might forget for the first few shots when you next take your camera out again.

Mike

[scottbergerphoto]

scottbergerphoto - What camera are you using? The only way to meter, on a 10D for instance, would be in program mode, correct? Please correct me!
The top 2 pictures are from the 1D Mark II, and the bottom one is a 10D. Your best bet for difficult lighting situations is to
1. Put the camera on Manual (M) Mode, Partial [()] or Center Weighted []Metering
2. Take 2-3 meter readings in your prospective image area (write them down) to get a sense of the darkest and lightest meter readings. This will tell you how much of the image can be properly exposed. You are good for about 8 stops.
3. Bias your settings for the reading you get for the part of the image you want exposed the most correctly.
4. If you want a good general exposure, pick a setting midway between the lightest and darkest readings you took.
5. For sunsets, I just take a reading using the sky lateral to the sun.
6. Sunny 16, does not apply to sunsets. The Sunny 16 rule applies when a scene is evenly illuminated by a bright midday sun. That is not the case with sunsets.
Regards,
Scott

[AzzKicker]

I've had the best luck using the Tv mode.

[scottbergerphoto]

I've had the best luck using the Tv mode.
The problem with Tv is that if you meter off the sky lateral to the sun, the exposure will change when you recompose to include the sun. If you are going to use Tv or Av, you need to use * exposure lock to keep the correct exposure when you recompose.
Scott

[Canuck]

Here is one I took on film with the Sigma 70-300mm that I talk about being crap back in late Dec 2002:
http://images.fotopic.net/?id=2114507

It was taken full manual, but forget the settings. I think I may have underexposed it an fstop or 2.

[Canon10Digital]

What about using a tripod, bracketing, and then merging in photoshop? thats what i have done in the past.

[teddynet]

For the typical sunset pic with the sun low in the sky centre weighted metering works well, the brighter central portion of the image will cause the rest of the image to underexpose just the right amount to really bring out the colour of the sky.

[Tom Green]

As always you guy's come to my rescue. Thanks for taking the time and effort to answer my post. You all are very gracious.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Persian-Rice]

Tom, you might also want to look into a ND grad and warm-up filter, if you plan on shooting the sun a lot.

[Jon]

Didn't see anyone else mention it, so - be careful what white-balance setting you use. AWB will try to kill the warmth, as will Tungsten. Daylight or cloudy will boost it.

[scottbergerphoto]

Didn't see anyone else mention it, so - be careful what white-balance setting you use. AWB will try to kill the warmth, as will Tungsten. Daylight or cloudy will boost it.
My 3 shots above were all AWB. Even when I shoot Raw, I rarely need to change it.
Scott