A Non-red sun conundrum

[robp]

Hi, I hope somebody can point me in the right direction here.

On the way to work this frosty morn I saw the sun looking very red as it rose so stopped to get a snap. That's all it was - a snap - there was no particular thought given to composition etc. However, I was disappointed to see it looking feebly yellow in my review screen. I tried a few different WB settings and exposure compensations but couldn't get a red sun.

I would be most grateful if somebody could tell me why this was and what to do next time.



It's more or less bang in the middle of the shot.

Nikon D3100, Tamron SP17-50, ISO 400, F/4.5, 1/80sec

Thank you for looking

 

[rpsmith79]

I would suspect it is partly to do with the WB and partly to do with the Exposure

As the sky is to much brighter than the foreground the camera (depending on the metering mode) will be trying to meter the whole scene, what you really need to do is meter for the sky if that is you main point of interest, but this would of course make the foreground underexposed, so you would either need to use ND grads or take multiple shots at varying exposures and overlay them in Photoshop

Also, depending on your WB settings and if you shoot RAW or Jpeg, this will also effect how the end image looks

Ideally you would want to be shooting RAW then you can play with the WB to your hearts content in Post Processing

 

[admirable]

As Rich says, it's an exposure problem,

 

[admirable]

For the next time you need to expose for the grass, lock the exposure and then take the shot.

 

[Elines]

Did you shoot it in automatic?

If so that is the problem.

If not then you should maybe have taken a few extra seconds to check the histogram, adjust settings and re-shoot.

 

[robp]

Thank you for your input, guys

I get all the exposure issues etc and no, it wasn't shot in auto. It's just that I can't figure out why the sun isn't red. I tried various white balances and exposures and even tried a shot at 1/800sec as opposed to the 1/80sec in this particular shot. The 1/800sec gave a lovely rich orange/yellow colour to the sun with a red rim around the outside...but the sun was red all over. Should I have gone for a significantly further under-exposure to produce a red sun?

I understand about the general blow-outedness (if there's such a word lol) of the sky etc but was baffled as to how I could make a red sun look red in camera.

 

[Elines]

Hmm .... to put it in arty farty terms ......

.... you had a 'vision' for this image (=what you saw in your head) but you can't quite get it reproduced on your monitor.

(not saying these pearls of wisdom will help but just a thought)

It may be that if you keep coming back to the image you will work out what to do. I say this because I have a similar problem with one of my photos - I KNOW there is a good image in there somewhere but just can't get it out... (but enough of my sex life)

 

[admirable]

but was baffled as to how I could make a red sun look red in camera.

Filters, Google graduated filters...........it's a whole subject on it's own