How to make the sun red?

Lorijo

When I take a photo of the sunrise or sunset, just when the sun is slightly over the horizon and it looks red or orange in real life; the photo shows a white or yellow sun. :dunno

What camera settings or lenses should I use to show what my eye is seeing?
Here is an example, sunrise over the river, the sun should have been a nice orange, like it's reflection in the river. Thanks for any help, I hope I put this in the right spot, I am trying to figure out the site still. Lori

BrettG

Welcome!

Hmmm, perhaps blowing out (clipping) the red channel? Maybe try underexposing a bit.

Do you have a program (photoshop etc) that can display RGB histogram?

I'm sure someone more knowledgable than I will respond with more info...

Bodwick

It looks like you've taken a meter reading from the reflection in the water. This gives you the correct exposure for the reflection but burns out the sun.

You can spot meter near the sun and then from the water and split the difference. Or meter the sun and shoot, then meter the water and shoot then combine the two images.

You could use a reverse split ND filter but not for your shot due to the tree's.

I took this test shot(single frame of a panoramic) of an area to be re-shot later with a high tide. Should obtain the effect you want ie both rising sun and water reflection.. A reverse ND was used.



Bod.

Lorijo

Bodwick wrote:

It looks like you've taken a meter reading from the reflection in the water. This gives you the correct exposure for the reflection but burns out the sun.

You can spot meter near the sun and then from the water and split the difference. Or meter the sun and shoot, then meter the water and shoot then combine the two images.


Bod.

Thanks Brett and Bod. Bod, It was just using the auto settings of the camera, I will try a spot reading next time. Your photo is lovely, but still the ball of the sun is yellow and not red.

Brett, thanks for the welcome! I have photoshop CS2, I am still learning how to use it. I haven't messed with the channels and histograms other than to get totally confused by them and not get them to do what I want them to! Lori

ballentphoto

Lorijo wrote:

Thanks Brett and Bod. Bod, It was just using the auto settings of the camera, I will try a spot reading next time. Your photo is lovely, but still the ball of the sun is yellow and not red.

Brett, thanks for the welcome! I have photoshop CS2, I am still learning how to use it. I haven't messed with the channels and histograms other than to get totally confused by them and not get them to do what I want them to! Lori

The new Capture NX will do that really quick, set a color control point on the sun, resize the circle of influence (that's what I call it) and you can reset the color for the area. No masks just quick and easy

Lorijo

ballentphoto wrote:

The new Capture NX will do that really quick, set a color control point on the sun, resize the circle of influence (that's what I call it) and you can reset the color for the area. No masks just quick and easy

Thanks Michael,

It sounds cool, you made me look it up, Nikon's answer to photoshop.
I have tried messing with the sun in PS, I haven't been happy with the results. I looked all over the net yesterday too, trying to find red suns, and then figure out how people did them. I found 1/250 and f/5.6 settings might work. So today the sun decides to hide behind the clouds so I never found out if it worked or not.

ballentphoto

Lorijo wrote:

Thanks Michael,

It sounds cool, you made me look it up, Nikon's answer to photoshop.
I have tried messing with the sun in PS, I haven't been happy with the results. I looked all over the net yesterday too, trying to find red suns, and then figure out how people did them. I found 1/250 and f/5.6 settings might work. So today the sun decides to hide behind the clouds so I never found out if it worked or not.

I have Capture NX and really like it, but it's almost PS hehehe No cloning/healing but it can be sorta simulated. But color changes are a snap. Download the trial and give it a whirl. Even if you do not have a Nikon camera you can still process jpg and tiff files. Let me know if you have any questions, and I will try to answer them as best as I can. The U-Point stuff is so slick though, and you need some beefy hardware. (at least 1gb RAM but more is better) There are tutorials online as well from Nikon and case studies are pretty cool too.

Here are the links.

http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/software/capturenx/nxsp/tutorials.htm

http://nikonimaging.com/global/products/software/capturenx/nxsp/casestudies.htm

BrettG

Here's one I took a while ago, but the sun itself is still more yellow white than red... This is a sunrise, don't think a sunset would be any different.



EXIF linky

This was 1/1250 at f8. I think (almost a year ago, so my memory is suspect) that I did matrix metering or maybe a center weight with -1 exposure compensation.

I think that anything other than a sun very low to the horizon will lose the redness...

Lorijo

BrettG wrote:

Here's one I took a while ago, but the sun itself is still more yellow white than red... This is a sunrise, don't think a sunset would be any different.



EXIF linky

This was 1/1250 at f8. I think (almost a year ago, so my memory is suspect) that I did matrix metering or maybe a center weight with -1 exposure compensation.

I think that anything other than a sun very low to the horizon will lose the redness...

Here is a link to what I would like to do, Google Image Result for http://k43.pbase.com/v3/49/2949/2/44319135.IMG_4242.jpg I went to Google images and put red sun in the search, very few of them come up.

Nice photo Brett!

Thanks Michael, I'll give it a try. The problem I was having with PS was, I could make a nice red sun, but then it would have the yellow rim around it which looked hokey and fake. So I tried making that a different color and it still didn't look good. Tonight was cloudy too so no red sun for me tonight either. Lori

ballentphoto

Lorijo wrote:

Here is a link to what I would like to do, Google Image Result for http://k43.pbase.com/v3/49/2949/2/44319135.IMG_4242.jpg I went to Google images and put red sun in the search, very few of them come up.

Nice photo Brett!

Thanks Michael, I'll give it a try. The problem I was having with PS was, I could make a nice red sun, but then it would have the yellow rim around it which looked hokey and fake. So I tried making that a different color and it still didn't look good. Tonight was cloudy too so no red sun for me tonight either. Lori

Well the sun will rise again tomorrow take a look at the videos and you will be light years ahead from where I started since I downloaded it the day it came out. I watched the tutorials and then the light bulb came on. Some stuff is just plain easier. As I said it does most everything a photographer would want except for clone/healing brush, but for the vast majority of pictures I take I use it to edit the pics.

Lorijo

Not quite what I had in mind

ballentphoto wrote:

Well the sun will rise again tomorrow take a look at the videos and you will be light years ahead from where I started since I downloaded it the day it came out. I watched the tutorials and then the light bulb came on. Some stuff is just plain easier. As I said it does most everything a photographer would want except for clone/healing brush, but for the vast majority of pictures I take I use it to edit the pics.

Well I downloaded the trial and have been playing with it. I was able to view the case histories, need to look at them again! The tutorials wouldn't open for me, I'll try them again tomorrow. I don't know about light years ahead, here is one thing I came up with so far. [IMG][/img]

ballentphoto

Lorijo wrote:

Well I downloaded the trial and have been playing with it. I was able to view the case histories, need to look at them again! The tutorials wouldn't open for me, I'll try them again tomorrow. I don't know about light years ahead, here is one thing I came up with so far. [IMG][/img]

Hehehehe I am sure that you can get it.