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Shooting Sunsets? (video)

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Official_Recap
Posts: 1075 - Karma: 525

I shot a few moments during a sunset the other day. I have always been careful about shooting directly into the sun because it would flare out and is difficult to balance the light in the shot. However, it seemed fitting to have a couple shots of the actual sunset. When looking at the footage, the sun seems to flare out in a non-circular shape, which is inconsistent from shot to shot.

Has anyone else had this issue? and is there a certain way you go about filming around the sun to avoid it, or do you just have to deal with stopping up and darkening the entire image?







Cheers!


Chase


Mar 21 2011 11:26PM
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TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,386
You mean the sunstar?

The look of the sun is dependent upon the atmosphere and the aperture. The non-circular sun comes from the shape your aperture blades make, and the long points of light are from light leaking in between them a little (that's not super specific, but that's the idea). That all has to do with your lens, I'm not sure if there's any way to fix that besides buying a different lens that renders a different sun.

The blobbiness is from the clouds in the atmosphere reflecting dispersing the sun. There's really nothing you can do about that to the best of my knowledge.
Mar 21 2011 11:55PM
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Official_Recap
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Thanks so much for such a direct response!

Also, for exposing a shot at the sun, is there any way to relatively balance the light across the image, or do you just need to deal with a darker foreground in order to balance the sky?
Mar 22 2011 5:47PM
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TWoods
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The only way to do that is with reflectors or artificial lights.

If you want to get crafty with it, you can look up tutorials online about how to make reflectors.


Here's just one example, that seems pretty easy.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2273023_make-homemade-photography-reflector.html


Remember though, unlike electric lights that will disperse light over an area, flat reflectors cast light only about the same size as they are, so it would work well for lighting up the bust of a person or a couple people, but you're going to need to make a big one to do anything else.
Mar 22 2011 10:11PM
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Official_Recap
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Awesome. Thanks for all of your help, it is much appreciated! I'm definitely going to look into that and try to come up with some ideas for next time.

Cheers
Mar 22 2011 11:31PM
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BryantPhoto
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Claim for being in the video...
Mar 23 2011 12:15PM
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s.erickson
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graduated filters
Mar 23 2011 3:18PM
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TWoods
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true, in some situations that will help a lot. That will help with a horizon/ landscape, but won't help as much with shots in his video, where people are present, especially when framed chest up with the sun in the background.
Mar 23 2011 3:22PM
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Official_Recap
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I think that actually would have worked well. The main issue I saw was around the static shots of the scene, not so much when shooting subjects.

Thoughts on using a graduated filter when shooting a landscape vs. using a color gradient on the horizon in post? Obviously shooting with specific techniques is going to give a stronger result, but do you guys think color post-work would yield decent results?


Mar 23 2011 4:14PM
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TWoods
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Decent, but it's always better to have a well-exposed image out of your camera before you begin work in post. Saves you a ton of time, generally looks better in the end, and IMO illustrates competency because you had the forethought to shoot right in the first place.
Mar 23 2011 5:15PM
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