chefpat1

Hi All,
I was hoping someone can help me with sunset photo's. I usually wait for days when the sun is slipping in and out of clouds, avoiding bright cloudless days. When I look through my lens, usually my Canon 70-200 2.8 II with IS lens and my Mark D III, I can see the sun perfectly, the outline perfectly but when I open in photoshop, the sun is drastically overexposed to the point of not even being able to make out the outline.
What is confusing me is that sometimes the image comes out good. I can't figure it out, can anyone help?
I am including an image where it actually captured what I was seeing through the lens, the first image, as well as an example of what I am usually left with. The setting were the same.
Thanks in advance, Pat

craig.j.tucker

you've got me stumped. I import all my photos in MacBook Photos. I've taken heaps of sunrise/sunset photos and have no clue with your problem.

Have you tried importing other than Photoshop?

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

It would help us if you would check "(store original)" and click "Add Attachment". That would allow us to retrieve the EXIF data so we could evaluate better.

fotojeff

Check your settings between the two photos. I am betting they are different even though they are similar images. Are these images the same location? The second image is zoomed, my bet is your autoexposure changed your shutter speed and or aperture. Basically your metering was using different metering points.

chefpat1

HI, Thanks...

(Download)


(Download)

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

The key may be when you said "the settings were the same". They shouldn't have been the same. Scenes like those are hard to meter, and can fool the camera if you are letting it decide. Do you bracket your exposures? That would be a good thing to do.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

Hahaha...I just got done reading 3 pages of the "why don't we use auto mode?" Thread right before opening this one...and folks were trashing those who advocate manual mode shooting. (I'm not laughing at you)

The problem is that if you allow the camera to decide on the exposure then you are in for a crap shoot for results.

If the sun is filling the field of view...you get one result, if it's 20% of the entire frame..you get something else...and you never know what.

The sun is incredibly bright as compared to all else in your scene..the dynamic range is huge. You have to decide what you want your shot to look like; sun exposed correctly and all else almost a silhouette or all else exposed correctly and the sun blown out.

I believe that Bryan Peterson's book "Understanding exposure" goes over this shot. It's worth reading.


My personal opinion is this; I don't want a steering wheel on the passenger side of the car, and I also don't want to the camera to make my decisions for me...I don't like surprises, I like consistency. So the short answer is: meter off of the sun or close to it and shoot in manual mode. The article link explains it.

http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/1219/how-to-sunset-photography/

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

The settings were NOT the same. In the 1st shot the average brightness of the scene was much darker (about 4 times darker) than the second shot so the shutter was open longer (1/125 vs 1/200 sec) and the ISO was cranked higher (250 vs 100), together collecting about 4 times as much available light. The camera exposure was set for the average brightness at the time in both shots. The difference in brightness of the sun vs the water was much greater in the second shot. Therefore, the sun was overexposed in the second but not the first.

chefpat1

Hi, I was actually shooting in aperture priority, I never shoot in auto and always shoot raw. I was trying to meter off the sun hoping to be able to pull some detail out of the shadows of the forefront. I do usually bracket 1 up and 1 down but the majority of my sunset photos have the sun blown out, even though the sun looks perfect, like the first shot, through the lens when I'm taking the shot..I was wondering if there was any way to use my handheld meter to improve these shots. Obviously I can't get close to the sun but maybe someone has something I haven't thought of

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

When the sun is "uncovered," you will not be able to avoid that kind of white when the rest of the image is dark (sunset). rpavich mentioned the term dynamic range: the camera can't capture that wide range of bright to dark in a single exposure.

We expect the sun to be blown-out and featureless. We know its intensity! So you just have to learn to work that idea into your compositions. Often keeping the sun small in the frame will make a big difference in appeal. Otherwise, watch for weather conditions that will help lessen the brightness, such as haze or smoke or thin clouds. With sunset shots, the lower the sun is in the sky, the more likely you'll have atmospheric conditions that aid in reducing the bright white aspect.

In #1 the sun is much smaller and its intensity is broken up by cloud cover. With #2 you could try cloning some of the cloud cover onto the sun to make the area of white smaller. Do at low opacity, small increments at a time. You can also try to add a little yellow to the white; it's tricky to make it look natural, though

btw, I find #1 to be quite beautiful!

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

You may think you exposed for the sun, but if you were not in spot metering, you weren't.

tcthome Loc: NJ

Spot metering is the way to go for these type of shots. I meter off off the sky to 1 side & then under expose. Then pull the shadows back up in pp. Without some kind of cloud cover or a filter , the sun is going to blow out.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Here is a quick and dirty way to meter for sunsets. Aim your camera 45 degrees left or right of the sun, then point the camera up 45 degrees, lock in that meter reading, then go back and shoot the sunset.

cdayton

In the Tucson area, I tend to shoot just after the sun sinks below the horizon for the most dramatic colors. Including the sun in the image forces you to deal with an absurd dynamic range and usually makes the sun the centerof interest. Also, because the Tucson area has mountains to the East, you can get great color reflecting off those peaks. Your area may be different but I used the same approach for several years shooting from a 6th floor west-facing balcony in Baltimore.

sergiohm

You should be in manual mode, use spot metering and point the spot at the sky or the water, set the aperture and shutter speed appropriately - use the settings from the first photo as a starting point.