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How to take sunrise pics

petehowell

petehowell

Well Known Member
I am getting up early to grab some flight time and pics of the sunrise here in Minne. Any tips from Doug or the other expert photogs out there? I am pretty new to the game.

I have a Canon Rebel XTi and a nice 70-200mm lens. I will be shooting out of the closed :D slider of my RV-9A.

Setting suggestions, ways to minimize reflections, any advice appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Pete, welcome to some of the most wonderful photography there is! Really clean glass on the canopy, wear a black T-shirt to minimize glare and set the camera on auto-everything. Image stabilization on the lens ON if you have it.

The secret is to shoot about 50 pictures - 1 of them will be awesome!!!

A little added RED and some creative cropping using something like the Picasa will really bring the picture out of its shell.

You're going to do great!

b,
d


petehowell said:
I am getting up early to grab some flight time and pics of the sunrise here in Minne. Any tips from Doug or the other expert photogs out there? I am pretty new to the game.

I have a Canon Rebel XTi and a nice 70-200mm lens. I will be shooting out of the closed :D slider of my RV-9A.

Setting suggestions, ways to minimize reflections, any advice appreciated.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
 
Have ya' got fall colors up there yet Pete? Fall is my absolutely favorite time of year back home, but it looks like I'm not going to get up there this year - just launched this morning, and tied up for the next 13 days or so, then turning around for the next one....gess I'll just have to look at my pictures from last year...or enjoy the ones you'll take!

Paul
 
Take lots of pictures & see what turns out...learn from it. One of the great things about digital is the camera saves all the photo info in the actual file. That way, you can go back & think about what you did...and maybe how to improve next time.

I recommend never taking a single photo on any of the "user friendly" modes. P, Tv, Av or M are the only modes I shoot in.

I took this with my Rebel XT & 70-200 F/4L a couple hours ago: http://www.thedukes.org/temp/smoke_20071023_221.jpg (resized in Photoshop) mini sized:
smoke_20071023_221_sm.jpg


Lots of smoke here in SoCal.
 
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Getting the exposure right on pictures with the sun can be pretty tricky. I've found that a good place to start is to use the exposure lock button, and set the exposure while pointed just to one side of the sun or the other. Then frame the pic you really want, and snap away.
 
Exposure Lock

Like Keen9 said in his post. Point the camera at the sky about 30 degrees either side of the sun and lock the exposure, then recompose and click. This will give you natural looking sky and sunset without blowing out the highlights. If you just point at the ground most likely you will have good surface but blown out highlights in the sky and sun area.
You'll have to do that and recompose everyshot, or you can just shoot in manual and set the proper exposure and then shoot away until the light changes.
 
groucho said:
Take lots of pictures & see what turns out...learn from it. One of the great things about digital is the camera saves all the photo info in the actual file. That way, you can go back & think about what you did...and maybe how to improve next time.

I recommend never taking a single photo on any of the "user friendly" modes. P, Tv, Av or M are the only modes I shoot in.

I took this with my Rebel XT & 70-200 F/4L a couple hours ago: http://www.thedukes.org/temp/smoke_20071023_221.jpg (resized in Photoshop) mini sized:
smoke_20071023_221_sm.jpg


Lots of smoke here in SoCal.
Click to expand...

Great shot!!!!!!

But, what model RV is that?????????
 
Mike S said:
But, what model RV is that?????????
Click to expand...
Good point...I wasted a shot on a non-RV. Stupid me!!!

I don't use the exposure hold button. On the Canon models, at least on P, Tv & Av, if you press the shutter button half way to get the exposure, then move the camera, the exposure doesn't reset...saves mashing that little button in the corner each frame. On something that's slowly fairly changing, like a sunrise or sunset, I usually set everything manually & shoot a few shots to see how the exposure looks. The LCD actually works pretty well for checking exposure. If you look at the photo on the LCD & also cross check the histogram, you can nail it.

Can't wait to see 'em Pete!
 
What do you think?

Here are the results of the morning flight and photoshoot. Launched at 7am into a cool, crisp morning. With 15 gal and solo, the climbout is very fun! At this point, even if I forgot the camera battery at home, I am winning big on the day......

It was still pretty dark as I worked north:
2003320696248764702_rs.jpg


As predicted, the sun rose in the east:
2003333953789549597_rs.jpg


Cloud deck at 3500 gave some contrast:
2003364299613485269_rs.jpg


More of the same:
2003322957665594750_rs.jpg


Behind the cloud deck and ready to rise again:
2003325665449211048_rs.jpg


I shot 135 images. Here is a Picasa link to the ones that I thought had any merit:

http://picasaweb.google.com/fly.rv9A/Sunrise

Suggestions/critiques welcome. No comments on primers, igntion systems, or nosewheels, please;)

Gave Flight Watch a PiRep, called the tower, nailed the landing, put her away, and headed to the day job:(
 
Great! Love the last one. Just a little more of the bottom cloud/ground in the photo would make it muy bueno. Good fun, huh?
 
Love that high cirrus in the last image, Pete. Isn't that initial poke of light right when the disk breaks the surface worth the effort it takes to get there?

Great shots!
 
Great Point Groucho

This one is better composed, but the color does not pop quite the same. I'm learning - thanks for the advice!

2004863336262760425_rs.jpg
 
No Doubt

DR Said --> "Love that high cirrus in the last image, Pete. Isn't that initial poke of light right when the disk breaks the surface worth the effort it takes to get there?"

It is completely different from the air!
 
As luck would have it, I've been up before sunrise this week (trying to get a bunch of Future Tense episodes done...I'm filling in through next Wednesday... even though I'm off to San Francisco tomorrow for the anniverswary).

Knowing Pete was going to be checking out the sunrise from up top, I grabbed my coffee, bundled up and sat out on the deck to watch the same sunrise from down below.

Pete's was better.

You know I look at these forums and these pictures and these travel stories and I say, "In my next life, I'm coming back as (fill in name of cool RVator who does really interesting things and posts about it here)."

Keep 'em coming, so you can keep me dreaming! Many thanks!
 
petehowell said:
This one is better composed, but the color does not pop quite the same. I'm learning - thanks for the advice!
Click to expand...
It's amazing the difference a few minutes (seconds?) can make in lighting during sunrise/sunset. I'm by no means a master at this, but to my amateur eye, it just looks like the sun wasn't quite "doing its thing" on the second version of that image. I like the framing though! Here's some play I did combining both images:

sunset_play.jpg


Marc DeGirolamo said:
I have a Canon XTI and have shot sunrise/sunset but get these ghost reflections in the picture. I noticed that Pete had the same in a few of his sunrise shots.....How can I get rid of these...or better yet why do they appear in the first place ????
Click to expand...
That's lens flare. Basically it's the sun (or other light source) bouncing around in your lens. Here's some pretty good info on lens flare: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/lens-flare.htm Sometimes it's unavoidable. Depending on how bad it is, you may be able to edit it out digitally.
 
Very Cool Groucho

Can you work similar magic to get my 14 year olds in line?!

I tried sunset from 4500 last night and got nothing interesting at all. Oh well, I practiced slow flight and stalls.
 
Lens Flair

Marc DeGirolamo said:
I have a Canon XTI and have shot sunrise/sunset but get these ghost reflections in the picture. I noticed that Pete had the same in a few of his sunrise shots.....How can I get rid of these...or better yet why do they appear in the first place ????
Click to expand...
Using a lens hood can help with the flair, and this is one area where high end lenses really help. They generally have coatings to minimize the internal reflections that cause flair. Also, avoid cheap filters as they can make flair really bad.

Besides equipment, the angle of the lens to the sun is about the only control you have, but that limits the framing of the shot.
 
November Sunset

The fires out west are giving me some pretty colors to learn on.... Still working of composition:

2000146856367816625_rs.jpg


2000194175589488449_rs.jpg


2000155060867618598_rs.jpg


We'll try some more sunrise air to air in the morning.
 
First Photo

Cruising at 5500 ft. over northern Minnesota...


sunset1yi4.jpg


I decided to dig out my cheap camera and see what happens. I really need to get an autopilot and a better camera for times like this!

Paul Danclovic
Carver MN
RV-8A
 
I'm just figuring out the photo clean-up thing myself and a buddy of mine forwarded this link: http://www.projectwoman.com/2009/02/photoshop-fixing-photos-shot-from.html

If you're so inclined you can download GIMP from gimp.org, which is a fairly decent open source app, akin to Photoshop, but with a much better price! I took the photo of Mt. Si outside of Seattle as the sun was headign down. The bottom photo has been corrected a little and I've been able to reduce some of the haze, but I'm still on the steep part of the learning curve.

IMG_1890.JPG


WF_IMG_1890.JPG
 
Guadalupe Mountains

DSC04489.jpg

I took this one the other day flying home from Big Bend Ranch. I like the cloud reflections on the wing.
 
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