Sun photos

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Permalink Reply by Nathan Anderson on December 19, 2008 at 3:18pm

Hello Christine,

One way to accomplish this is to "bracket" your images. Use a tripod with a shutter release delay for this... ;) Expose for the ground on your first shot. I usually go to auto and see what the camera thinks is good for the ground. I only include the ground, and then I make a mental note of the exposure settings, and set that in manual. I then take the sky shot exposed for the ground. Take a second shot, with your hand over the frame, so that you will know that the next shot is where your sky settings go (this is optional). For the sky, I compensate for this incrementally stepping up or down until I get the right balance. You can now combine or bracket the ground and sky exposed shots using the software of your choice. Taking the ground first is the paramount when using this technique, since your going to have to point the camera at the ground. Once it is set, and the "exposed for ground" picture is taken, your shot is already composed for the sky. This will allow for a seamless blend in the software.

Best Regards,
Nathan

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Permalink Reply by Nathan Anderson on December 23, 2008 at 8:46am

I also forgot to mention the use of a Graduated Neutral Density filter. You can cut down on the blown-out sky, and take a longer exposure or use the flash to capture the foreground.

I made a quick Graduated ND Filter simulation of your photo using Lightroom 2.

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Permalink Reply by CameraClicker on December 23, 2008 at 4:12pm

Nathan's advice is good. Either multiple exposures or a neutral density filter.

There is a third way that is not as good as either of these but can save a photo and is more convenient. Shoot in Raw mode. You get 12 or 14 bits of data instead of 8 that way. From the raw capture, you can step exposure up or down by a couple of stops before saving a jpg file. Set the software to expose part of the photo correctly and save as a jpg. Repeat the process with a different exposure for other parts of the photo, then combine the jpg files in your editing software to get the desired exposures for land, sea and sky, etc.

If your camera can take raw photos, you probably received a CD with raw converter software. You can also use Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CS3 to convert most raw files. For very new models, you may have to download the latest raw converter file from Adobe's web page.

A fourth way is to simulate the filter as Nathan did. This method has a higher risk of noise in the picture, depending on how much dynamic range the scene has.

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Permalink Reply by Nathan Anderson on December 23, 2008 at 6:24pm

Very good point CameraClicker. :) RawTherapee is a free alternative Raw converter. http://www.rawtherapee.com/
It's not bad, especially for the price.

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Permalink Reply by Christine on December 23, 2008 at 11:14pm

Great advice all - I am ordering some ND Filters so I can hopefully try them out.

Thanks again.

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Permalink Reply by Corrine Ament Photography on December 24, 2008 at 5:56am

another quick possible fix is to adjust the white balance. You can do this in photo editing software such as photoshop, etc. It will brighten the picture for you.

Nice photo though.....Merry Christmas

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