sunrise & sunset

[gazguildford1]

Sun sets / sun rise...
Hi all how do I take a decent sunset / sunrise photo with the foreground being visible rather than a silhouette?
I’m taking some nice pics but I’d like the foreground to be visible and in focus instead of miss out on some fabulous settings

 

[Stu Meech]

Sun sets / sun rise...
Hi all how do I take a decent sunset / sunrise photo with the foreground being visible rather than a silhouette?
I’m taking some nice pics but I’d like the foreground to be visible and in focus instead of miss out on some fabulous settings

Two ways you could do this,

Take a photo exposed for the foreground and one exposed for the sky, and then merge later on your computer (Lightroom has a good merging tool).

ND grad filters, something like a 0.6nd hard grad would be a good starting point. 0.6 is normally enough to balance most skies and is a good all round filter. You can get these from manufacturers like Lee Filters or Kase.

 

[Andy Into The Wild]

Remember you don't have to wait until the sun actually comes up - sometimes you get beautiful pastel colours before the sun even rises which can make some amazing shots (of course for sunset you can wait until just after the sun dip below the horizon).

 

[gazguildford1]

Thank you, yes ive learned that quite often the moments before the sun arrives or after it sinks below the horizon are very good times.
I’ve tried blending images in photoshop I will give it another go

 

[gazguildford1]

thanks for the tips

this is a very quick attempt at file stacking I know there is a lot of work needed

Test shot by gary etherington, on Flickr

here is a previous shot I am happy with but wanted to get the foreground

oct29th by gary etherington, on Flickr

 

[Andy Into The Wild]

You're always going to have difficulty shooting directly into the sun and making it look natural as the dynamic range required is many more stops of light than is possible to capture with a camera (or even the human eye). Try to work with the light instead of fighting against it - so capture a scene where the golden light is lighting up your subject, or you have some nice reflections mirroring the light in the clouds. Blending exposures can help bring back details in scenes where you've blown out certain things, but needs to be used carefully to avoid making a scene looking un-natural. Check out this video of Elia Locardi using exposure blending at Horseshoe Canyon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS4x2IUjqfU

And Jimmy McIntyre also does alot of exposure blending (although I think he goes a bit overboard on the technical stuff which would bore me senseless if I used it in my own photography, he certaintly knows his stuff) https://www.youtube.com/user/TheJimmymac20

Also it looks like you've gone a little overboard with the saturation in the sky in your first shot - again don't fight the light, wait until it is good and capture the scene...trying to create a scene using saturation and blending when one isn't there is just going to cause you issues.

Good luck

 

[LeeRatters]

Blending & filters have already been covered as the obvious basics.

One not so obvious thing..... Sometimes the best skies are in the opposite direction to the sun