Bracketing for a Sunrise

[hark]

Taking sunrise photos is out of my element, and I've never done bracketing previously. So here are a few questions. I'm looking to take sunrise photos with its reflection in a lake. The images will be especially bright since the foreground will be water. The body will be a D750 tripod mounted and want to try Luminosity Masking for post processing.

• Is it better to set my +/- exposure compensation for +.67 to +1.0 before I take the images since the sky needs to be exposed properly? If I can get a little detail in the tree line on the opposite side of the lake, that would be great. That would be the only shadowed area in the images.
• Which mode would work better? Aperture Priority without Auto ISO making the shutter speed be the variable that changes. OR would it be better to be in Manual Mode with Auto ISO making the ISO the variable that changes?
• And would 5 or 7 bracketed exposures work better?

Any tips/suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Fred Kingston_RIP]

If you set +/- exposure compensation, doesn't that sort of make bracketing useless?

I'd set my exposure mode to center, camera mode to M and dial in about an f8 aperture, with ISO at 100, and dial in whatever shutter speed the meter calls for... you are using a tripod. You might have to take 3 or 4 shots to dial in the correct settings... from there, I'd definitely do bracketing with 1+ stops of exposure difference between shots... Sunsets and Sunrises are great HDR candidates

 

[hark]

If you set +/- exposure compensation, doesn't that sort of make bracketing useless?

I'd set my exposure mode to center, camera mode to M and dial in about an f8 aperture, with ISO at 100, and dial in whatever shutter speed the meter calls for... you are using a tripod. You might have to take 3 or 4 shots to dial in the correct settings... from there, I'd definitely do bracketing with 1+ stops of exposure difference between shots... Sunsets and Sunrises are great HDR candidates

My thought with dialing in the +/- is because the camera will automatically underexpose the image (if I'm in Aperture Priority). So it would kind of be doing the same thing as what you mention with putting the camera in manual and coming up with the correct settings. BUT I've not ever attempted anything like this so I'm trying to wrap my head around everything. If I'm there prior to sunrise, there's only a 15-20 minute window before the sun appears. And I want to get some with the sky prior to sunrise, too.

I'm leaning towards Luminosity Masks as opposed to HDR. Luminosity masks are supposed to yield a slightly more realistic image than HDR. But again...I've never done Luminosity Masks or HDR either. Just stepping into new territory. Thanks for your input, Fred. The 1 stop bracketing info helps. Anything less probably wouldn't yield enough differences.

 

[Horoscope Fish]

Taking sunrise photos is out of my element, and I've never done bracketing previously. So here are a few questions. I'm looking to take sunrise photos with its reflection in a lake. The images will be especially bright since the foreground will be water. The body will be a D750 tripod mounted and want to try Luminosity Masking for post processing.

• Is it better to set my +/- exposure compensation for +.67 to +1.0 before I take the images since the sky needs to be exposed properly? If I can get a little detail in the tree line on the opposite side of the lake, that would be great. That would be the only shadowed area in the images.
• Which mode would work better? Aperture Priority without Auto ISO making the shutter speed be the variable that changes. OR would it be better to be in Manual Mode with Auto ISO making the ISO the variable that changes?
• And would 5 or 7 bracketed exposures work better?

Any tips/suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

Will you be using the Auto Bracketing feature on your D750? If so, and even if not, I would use Aperture Priority, select the ISO manually and bracket no less than 1 stop per frame. I would use at least five frames, probably seven, personally; though I think the D750 will bracket up to nine frames if you want.

Anthony Morganti has a good video on bracketing with a Nikon body: How I Shoot to Bracket

 

[nikonpup]

fred gave you a place to start. Hopefully your sunrise shoot is not a one time thing there is a learning curve every sunrise. Start a good 20-30 minutes before sunrise it will help you with your settings. I shoot manual, i take several
shots starting underexposed. Depending on the sunrise i may do or not a hdr. Good shootiing.

 

[hark]

Will you be using the Auto Bracketing feature on your D750? If so, and even if not, I would use Aperture Priority, select the ISO manually and bracket no less than 1 stop per frame. I would use at least five frames, probably seven, personally; though I think the D750 will bracket up to nine frames if you want.

Anthony Morganti has a good video on bracketing with a Nikon body: How I Shoot to Bracket

Thanks, Paul. I like Anthony Morganti's editing videos. Since I've never done bracketing, I didn't know the self-timer could be set to take successive shots automatically like he showed. When I had my D90, I used the self-timer a few times for single images but haven't used it since.

fred gave you a place to start. Hopefully your sunrise shoot is not a one time thing there is a learning curve every sunrise. Start a good 20-30 minutes before sunrise it will help you with your settings. I shoot manual, i take several
shots starting underexposed. Depending on the sunrise i may do or not a hdr. Good shootiing.

Thanks, Ron. I probably won't get a out a lot for sunrises but want to incorporate sunsets as well. So the same type of settings should apply. Part of what I want is the colorful sky immediately before sunrise. I was there 30 minutes prior to sunrise the other day which provided some very colorful scenes. I'll have to experiment with both manual vs. aperture priority to see which I prefer.

 

[Skwaz]

This is , if I remember , a 5 shot bracket with a d7100 , but just the same with d750 aperture priority , continuous drive , fired by wireless trigger , the cameras baseline and two frames at +1 , +2 and two frames -1 ,-2

 

[Prefrosh01]

Cindy (@hark),

I just came across this article and remembered your post asking about bracketing...

https://photographylife.com/when-to-use-bracketing

 

[hark]

Cindy (@hark),

I just came across this article and remembered your post asking about bracketing...

https://photographylife.com/when-to-use-bracketing

Thanks, Matt. I'll read through it and see what they say. I did go out one morning and take sets of 7 bracketed images but haven't yet attempted to edit them. I'm still trying to wrap my head around Luminosity masks.

Since the images were so bright, the camera automatically underexposed the main image. When the bracketing was done, that left me with almost totally black images for the darkest exposure in each set. But I simply won't have to use those. Since I took them in Aperture Priority, I will use the +/- button the next time I attempt bracketing and override the main exposure before bracketing from there. I still have plenty of others in each set from which to choose. Thanks again for the article. I like that web site but haven't read this!