How to take sunrise pics

[petehowell]

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:


As predicted, the sun rose in the east:


Cloud deck at 3500 gave some contrast:


More of the same:


Behind the cloud deck and ready to rise again:


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

[LifeofReiley]

Wow Pete,

Beautiful pictures... very nice!

[groucho]

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?

[DeltaRomeo]

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!

[petehowell]

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

[petehowell]

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!

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

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!

[Marc DeGirolamo]

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 ????

http://picasaweb.google.com/MarcDeGi...33997247423426

[groucho]

Originally Posted by petehowell

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

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:

Originally Posted by Marc DeGirolamo

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 ????

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/tut...lens-flare.htm Sometimes it's unavoidable. Depending on how bad it is, you may be able to edit it out digitally.

[petehowell]

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.