 Gale Stoner |
Shooting Sunsets What is the best way to get correct exposures for sunset shots? I usually shoot 3-image exposure bracketing with a tripod and my camera is set for "spot-metering". Should I set the exposure on the brightest part of the sky or the darkest part of the subject?
|
|
|
|
||
- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
No one way. You could do all three of the ways you mentioned and get a desirable exposure with some use of exposure compensation, or not, depending on how the scene is or how you want the picture to come out looking. And someone who uses HDR a lot will soon chime in with another way I'm sure. You can spot meter off a bright area and increase 2 stops or more. Or spot off a dark area and decrease. Or maybe you won't need to. A good place to start is to spot off an area away from the sun that's a deep orange and open up about a stop. See how it is, keep trying until you learn how something is going to come out. HDR involves taking multiple shot, exposing for certain areas, and stacking each shot as a layer, and erasing all but the areas that you exposed for, piecing a completed picture together.
|
|
|
|
||
- Dennis Flanagan Contact Dennis Flanagan Dennis Flanagan's Gallery |
If you are willing to spend the $$, Singh-Ray's Reverse Neutral Gradient Filter is a good way to go. http://www.singh-ray.com/reversegrads.html
|
|
|
|
||
|
Gale Stoner |
Thanks for the feedback. Your comments made me realize I've been metering on the brightest part of the sky and not adjusting the the compensation. Thanks again for your input.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Kevin Kopchynski |
Hi Gale, Another option is to meter on a blue portion of sky, if available. This will be a more mid-tone brightness. If you meter on the brightest, that is rendered as a well-exposed midtone, but the shadows may be too dark. When you bracket, are you seeing one of the exposures that you like? A "correct" exposure may not be possible in 1 shot, depending on the range between your darkest and lightest areas. Too great a range and neither film or digital can get it in a single exposure. I suspect that you will encounter this in almost every sunset you work with. HDR can be a little simpler than described; you can bring your different exposures to a program such as Photomatix and it will blend them into an hdr file. You then use Photomatix to "tone-map" this into a finished product. On my website, there is a sunset in the Shenandoah gallery. I took 5 exposures but even as fast as I could get them, the clouds were moving, and the HDR blend was a mess. So I just used the -1 stop exposure. This exposure is not "right" in the sense that I really could see details on the near ridges. I could use the more complex layering techniques, but I decided this exposure was a nice scene so I used it as is. Good luck Kevin
|
|
|
|
||
|
Gale Stoner |
Kevin, Thanks for the tips/suggestions. Yes, I use Photomatix but the sunset I was trying to capture was challenging even at -/+ 2 stops. Looking back, I realized I had spot-metered on the brightest area of the sunset and I couldn't recover the under-exposed areas, even with Photomatix. Your feedback is very helpful, and thanks for allowing me to see your Shenandoah gallery.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Kevin Kopchynski |
Gale, Yes, my biggest lesson is that I need to assess when to go to +/-3 and maybe even +/-4 stops. I think this may be fairly often with lots of bright sky and especially the sun in the frame. best regards,
|
|
|
|
||
|
Bob Cammarata |
Metering a neutral portion of the adjacent sky (without the sun in the frame) has always been the accepted standard for near-naked-eye versions of the typical sunrise or sunset. As mentioned by others, there really is no "correct way" to expose a scene since each photographer's taste and expectations may be different. Also keep in mind that everything in the foreground will be in silhouette.
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||