Shooting sunrises/sets?

[daystar]

I'm very new to all this :) so forgive my lack 'o knowledge but what might be some general tips/tricks/methods/rules etc. for shooting a sunrise or sunset? The ones I've tried come out a bit underexposed ~ do you just compensate or is there a better way to capture? And especially over the water? I don't have any filters...would that be a good starting point? Thanks for any advice!

[DisrupTer911]

you definitely need a good filter set to properly capture a sunrise/sunset without blowing out highlights or losing detail in the shadows.

also being at the right place at the right time helps which means getting up early and waiting around in dark for that perfect moment.

[jacobsen1]

if you're having exposure issues and don't have filters yet, turn your back to the sun... You'll get rid of the harsh lighting and find some wonderful colors you've been missing.

but yeah, if the sun is in the image, you pretty much need filters or need to abuse some HDRs.

[daystar]

Thanks for the replies. I actually just ordered uv filters for all my lenses. Is a uv sufficient? If not, what type do you recommend?

[tigerotor77w]

UV won't do much for you here... what type of filter depends on the effect you're looking for. Changes are, you'd be looking at Graduated Neutral Density (GND) filters -- about half the filter is dark; the other half is fully translucent.

This thread http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=224448 gives a pretty good idea of what GNDs are all about. jacbonsen1 is a poster there, too, and has some awesome captures...

[Shadowblade]

HDR, GNDs or a combination of the two:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3413/3500776256_27098e1e3b_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3546/3651120807_a33b3cc158_o.jpg

[Jared867]

HDR, GNDs or a combination of the two:




Forgive me for the newb question but... whats an HDR?

[TheValenz]

Hi Jared,

HDR is - High Dynamic Range

It is the process that you shoot a scene changing the expose levels for each shot.

Example

Shot 1 @ -1.5 stops
Shot 2 @ 0 Stop
Shot 3 @ +1.5 stops

what this does for you is bring out the shadows, the normal exposure, and the highlights.
you then use Photoshop CS or another high end photo manipulation application and bring the 3 photos into one.

here is a link to some tutorials for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
http://tutorialblog.org/hdr-tutorials-roundup/
http://hubpages.com/hub/HDR_Photography_Tutorial


Enjoy,

[Jared867]

oh wow thats interesting. I love photoshop. It is actually what got me motivated to get into digital photography. Just purchased CS4... should be in my mail tomorrow if all goes well.

Can I ask another new question please? what do you mean by "stops" F stops?

F stop is aperature right?

[mobl1ejunkie]

yes F stop is aperature.

[tmcman]

Look at the sunset and take two exposures
using the same aperture for each but changing the shutter speed
so one exposes the sky just they way you like it
and the other exposes the earth just the way you like it.
You'll notice that in each case the other part of the photo is either over or under exposed.
You can now paste together in Photoshop the good halves of each photo
to make one photo that nicely exposes both parts of the pic.
This is the basic challenge of sunsets which can also be solved with graduated neutral density filters or hdr processing.
There is a dedicated hdr thread in this forum under Raw, processing... something like that.

[tigerotor77w]

F-stop is aperture, but "stops" is not. A stop of light is equivalent to halving the amount of light reaching the sensor. This can be halving the shutter speed or going down one f-stop or adjusting the ISO by half, but, of course, you can use any combination of these to go up or down a stop, too.