The Camerazzi Community

Shooting the rising or setting sun

Ed’s note: We have seen many sunrise/sunset posts in both on the Camerazzi website and facebook page, often leading to a lively discussion in the comments. Probably the most common problems that we have identified in these shots are over exposure of the sun (burnout or washout) and under-exposure (no detail) in the foreground. In this article Mike Harvey fills us in on on his approach to these shots – thanks, Mike! Reposted from the first Camerazzi website.

Mike’s shot above shows how perfectly possible it is to get some beautiful detail in the foreground without having a ‘washed out’ sun.

Sunrise and sunset landscape photography
Posted March 28th, 2009 by Mike Harvey

Essential hardware:

Tripod
I recommend a tripod, if you buy one try and buy the type of which the legs can spread out flat; this is great for a low angle.

Camera
DSLR or advanced digital with manual settings

Now for the settings:

Focus
I prefer to work in manual, auto focus off – nothing as irritating as a lens hunting to focus when the light is low. If you are doing a general landscape shot then focus to infinity, then go back a bit as no lens is great at the very extremes.

F stop
Not always easy but anything from f5.6 to f11 is good for general landscape. If you want the foreground blurred then you would use f2.8.

Shutter & metering
This will be a mix of the light I am working with and what result I want.
Silhouette: take a light reading off the brightest part of the scene but be careful of the sun if it is still bright it can burn your camera and eye. If you want the foreground well exposed and not over expose the sun the two main ways are:
1. Fit a nd grad filter to reduce the bight sunlight, or
2. Take two light readings one from near the sun and one from the darkest part, average the readings and adjust it to the dark side. Example: camera on manual focus just off infinity F stop: sun gives f8 at 1/500 sec and black rocks f8 at 1/60 the middle would be about f8 at 1/75 sec, therefore I would set it to 1/125 sec.
If your aim is to freeze motion then a lower f number, shutter above 1/125 sec.
If you want motion blur like water then f11 or higher. For this I close down the lens until I am below 1/60 sec.

Formats – the sun and the foreground
Two basic formats of sunrise/sunset: one is where the foreground is correctly exposed and this will normally overexpose the sun, the other is where the sun is correct but the foreground is black. A way to get both the foreground and background well exposed is to move the sun out of the frame and do an average light reading. Should you want the sun correctly exposed then take two shots one exposed for each lighting condition and merge them in PS, but you will need a tripod for this.

Tripod for multi exposure
This is needed for multi-exposure shots and to prevent camera shake and keep the horizon level. On the Nikon D90 I use the grid lines to keep things level. If your camera does not have this function visit the local caravan shop, pick up a circular spirit level and place on top of camera to get things level. I use one when I do multi landscape shots that I stitch together later to turn into a panorama picture.

What lens?
You can use any lens to do a landscape even a 600mm. “What!? I have never seen anyone shoot landscape with a 600mm!?” OK, so you are in India and you can just make out Mt Everest in the distance, however by using the 600mm lens, you can bring it a lot closer. This of course is not normal but who says you can’t? For the general types of shot, 18-70mm will work very well. Be careful with fisheye as the angle and distance to the closest subject with change the result.

Conclusion
My general set-up is:
Early morning sunrise: time about 4:30am summer time on the beach tripod legs flat on the sand. Camera setting f8, manual focus, just off infinity, manual shutter, take two light readings (spot metering) get the average back ½ stop. Lens set to 18mm.White balance to daylight or cloudy. As sunrise/sunset is pretty fast before the entire colour range is gone, you will have to adjust the shutter quite often. This I repeat every day until I get the shots I want. Two week holiday about 200-300 shots! Don’t give up!