Picture at sunset


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LBL2009

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Jul 9, 2009
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Seletar Estate, Singapore
Yesterday evening took a picture at a park. The sun was red among the trees but the picture shows a bright sun, not red.

Camera - D40
Setting - manual, shutter 125, f5.3, iso 400, white balance auto

I have a uv filter on the lens.

What is missing or what would you suggest I do with the setting to produce the 'red' Sun?
 

My guess is your metering is off, causing the sun to be overexposed.

Also, AWB does not always work to your advantage. Assuming that your exposure is correct, you might need to use shade/cloudy white balance to add more "orange" to the colours.
 

Yesterday evening took a picture at a park. The sun was red among the trees but the picture shows a bright sun, not red.

Camera - D40
Setting - manual, shutter 125, f5.3, iso 400, white balance auto

I have a uv filter on the lens.

What is missing or what would you suggest I do with the setting to produce the 'red' Sun?

for me, i will use CPL can help to reduce lens flare. than i will set the WB to cloudy so the picture will be warmer, i will set the f into 8 or 11, and i will set the speed about 500.
last but not least, i will take off the UV filter because sometimes if you put together with CPL can cause vignetting. i thing that's all
 

for me, i will use CPL can help to reduce lens flare. than i will set the WB to cloudy so the picture will be warmer, i will set the f into 8 or 11, and i will set the speed about 500.
last but not least, i will take off the UV filter because sometimes if you put together with CPL can cause vignetting. i thing that's all

The correct metering is very important.
 

Yesterday evening took a picture at a park. The sun was red among the trees but the picture shows a bright sun, not red.

Camera - D40
Setting - manual, shutter 125, f5.3, iso 400, white balance auto

Please read up what that means, adjust accordingly.
Understanding White Balance
 

Yesterday evening took a picture at a park. The sun was red among the trees but the picture shows a bright sun, not red.

Camera - D40
Setting - manual, shutter 125, f5.3, iso 400, white balance auto

I have a uv filter on the lens.

What is missing or what would you suggest I do with the setting to produce the 'red' Sun?

Showing all the settings is only partially helpful, because we weren't there to judge the brightness of the scene.

Someone even replied
WB: cloudy
aperture: f/8 or f/11,
Shutter speed: about 500

without any idea of what the scene looked like.... amazing powers of telepathy... ;)

The only clue which I think means much is that the sun appeared very bright, and not a red glow. Thus your photo is overexposed. Usually if the sun is a red ball, the photo tends to be quite dark. Maybe only silhouettes.
 

Yesterday evening took a picture at a park. The sun was red among the trees but the picture shows a bright sun, not red.

Camera - D40
Setting - manual, shutter 125, f5.3, iso 400, white balance auto

I have a uv filter on the lens.

What is missing or what would you suggest I do with the setting to produce the 'red' Sun?

Interesting, can you show the picture ?
 

Here it is. I don't know whether I am allowed to post picture in newbies thread.

I shot with program mode first and found the pictures overexposed. I turned to Manual and tried with different settings to get a better overall picture except the Sun.

I walked in the park and saw the setting sun among the trees and took the picture. It was 7.00pm.

sunsetcav.jpg
 

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Your camera metered for the vast majority of the scene, which is the grass, trees, road, house, etc.
only a TINY portion is occupied by the sun.

This picture looks underexposed, in fact.
If you under-under expose such that the sun is red, almost all of your photo will be black. Is that the effect you want?
 

What is your metering? Most likely "multi pattern" or something similar. So metering adjusted for the darker foreground by accepting overexposure for the small portion of the sun. If you want to meter at the small spot of sun then check your manual for ... spot metering :) - but in return you will get an underexposed foreground.
Secondly, we have some haze these days which screws any sunset into a hazy blurry thingy.
More to read: Understanding Camera Metering and Exposure
 

what they said are correct, and you should not used Auto WB when taking sunset.
 


My guess is your metering is off, causing the sun to be overexposed.

Also, AWB does not always work to your advantage. Assuming that your exposure is correct, you might need to use shade/cloudy white balance to add more "orange" to the colours.

Please read up what that means, adjust accordingly.
Understanding White Balance

what they said are correct, and you should not used Auto WB when taking sunset.


Thanks a lot for the links and your advice on White Balance.
 

Your camera metered for the vast majority of the scene, which is the grass, trees, road, house, etc.
only a TINY portion is occupied by the sun.

This picture looks underexposed, in fact.
If you under-under expose such that the sun is red, almost all of your photo will be black. Is that the effect you want?

What is your metering? Most likely "multi pattern" or something similar. So metering adjusted for the darker foreground by accepting overexposure for the small portion of the sun. If you want to meter at the small spot of sun then check your manual for ... spot metering :) - but in return you will get an underexposed foreground.
Secondly, we have some haze these days which screws any sunset into a hazy blurry thingy.
More to read: Understanding Camera Metering and Exposure

what they said are correct, and you should not used Auto WB when taking sunset.


I have yet to learn the setting of WB so I left it in Auto.
It was 7pm, getting dark but not very dark and the sun appeared orange/red. I will say the picture is close to the actual scene except for the Sun.
Metering is matrix. (D40 metering is Matrix, Center-weighted and Spot).
 

I have yet to learn the setting of WB so I left it in Auto.

Just an example from experience: When I got my Fisheye (16mm Zenitar) I tried the yellow filter that comes with the lens. It's really a piece of yellow glass, nothing to overlook when using. But accidentally I left the WB setting to Auto for the first shot - and the result was identical to a picture taken without the filter. So much for the correction with Auto WB. Hope that illustrates that any colour tone in your picture (be it yellow/orange at sunset or extra blue during daytime with CPL) will be averaged out to get a neutral white.
Set the WB according the shooting conditions (if there is a matching mode - consult your manual and the links given) or take the setting that comes closest. Keep in mind that shooting in JPG also results in a loss of image information due to JPG compression. Only RAW allows you to freely set the WB during post processing without further loss of details.
 

for me, i will use CPL can help to reduce lens flare. than i will set the WB to cloudy so the picture will be warmer, i will set the f into 8 or 11, and i will set the speed about 500.
last but not least, i will take off the UV filter because sometimes if you put together with CPL can cause vignetting. i thing that's all

Also, for your info, adding a CPL will only increase the likelihood of flare (extra surfaces for light to be reflected), not reduce. Besides, there's no benefit in using a CPL when you're shooting into the sun, because (correct me if I'm wrong) the polarizing effect is most apparent when you're shooting 90° to the sun's rays. At 0°, there will be no effect at all...
 

I have yet to learn the setting of WB so I left it in Auto.
It was 7pm, getting dark but not very dark and the sun appeared orange/red. I will say the picture is close to the actual scene except for the Sun.
Metering is matrix. (D40 metering is Matrix, Center-weighted and Spot).

Your eyes have a larger dynamic range than that of the sensor.
We can look at a scene with dark areas and very bright areas and still see enough details in all areas. For example, a tall building against a bright sky. Your eyes can still make out the details in the shadow area, but capture that same scene with a camera, and it will struggle to show ANY shadow detail if the sky is correctly exposed.

This is the main reason why the sun looks so bright in your photo.

You want to capture it exactly as you see it, then you have to mount camera on tripod, and capture at least 2 shots. One exposed for the sun. One exposed for the remainder. Merge in software and you should get something really close.
 

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