[MJSfoto1956]

I would simply auto-bracket 5 stops and choose the one that floats your boat and delete the rest. Or optionally, use the set of five pictures to feed into an HDR program like Photomatix Pro. Note that I find that a sunrise/sunset with the actual sun in it requires about 10 stops if you really want to capture "everything".

YMMV

Michael

[Arne Bo]

Since he's shooting jpeg, I wonder if you could get HDR to do something special...

That was my thought as well. If you use a tripod try in camera HDR. Otherwise you will have big problems with the sky or the foreground. (blown out sky or near black foreground) The exposure values are so wide spread out during this time of the day. Its one of these conditions raw shines the most.

[emalvick]

Shooting in JPG, you are obviously facing dynamic range limits. Regardless of that, I think the camera will tend to over-expose on sunrise and sunsets, and you would need to dial in a negative EV compensation to get a colorful shot.

The more white parts of your image are, the less color there is to saturate. This will often happen with a sky.

Raw of course will give you more flexiblity; more dynamic range, and more room to adjust exposure, white balance, saturation with less artifacts. You'll also be able to recover highlights.

HDR would be the final step and possibly desired if you stick with JPG or even if you want more out of your RAW. When the sun is in my shots, HDR becomes a blessing albeit with special care needed.

[Setter Dog]

Shooting in JPG, you are obviously facing dynamic range limits. Regardless of that, I think the camera will tend to over-expose on sunrise and sunsets, and you would need to dial in a negative EV compensation to get a colorful shot.

The more white parts of your image are, the less color there is to saturate. This will often happen with a sky.

Raw of course will give you more flexiblity; more dynamic range, and more room to adjust exposure, white balance, saturation with less artifacts. You'll also be able to recover highlights.

HDR would be the final step and possibly desired if you stick with JPG or even if you want more out of your RAW. When the sun is in my shots, HDR becomes a blessing albeit with special care needed.

I've started shooting in RAW for sunsets and the results are pleasing to me,.....thanks to all for their good advice.

Jack

[Aaron28]

I like changing my 'color' to vibrant for sunsets......most of my friends like the crazy colors versus the visible ones when I post.......the metering mode will have a big impact....average to center to spot or however it goes will effect results.......had it on spot one time got a black frame with a nice orange disc changed it to average and viola the whole scene I wanted.....
good luck and happy shooting!

[asp1880]

If someone has a suggestion, I'd appreciate it.

Here's an example of the same sunrise shot developed in camera in two wildly different ways. Just to give you a sense of the width of colours you can achieve by twiddling the JPEG settings.

As others have said, to get saturated colours it's important to get a lowish exposure, eg. by dialing in -2 exposure compensation.

First development: AWB, Landscape, saturation +2, contrast -1,
highlight protection on, shadow correction high.


Second development: Shade white balance with +1 magenta, Landscape, saturation +2, contrast -1,
hue -4, highlight protection on, shadow correction off.


The emphasised settings are key to the golden look.

Regards,
--Anders.

[rodeknyt]

Hello Folks,

First of all, only had it ten or so days but loving my K3. Great camera.

I'm strictly a JPEG shooter and use the "Bright" style, which is default to the camera. I like everything about the results,.......except,.....I am not getting very colorful sunrise shots. They are not nearly as pink as the actual scene. This morning, I tried boosting the saturation in Bright mode, then saturation and contrast together. No improvement noted.

I'll keep trying, of course, but the colors are best for only a minute. If someone has a suggestion, I'd appreciate it.

Jack

The technique I use, as espoused by Dr. Steve Browne—rather well-known for his outdoor photography—is to spot meter on the brightest part of the sky that DOESN'T contain the sun. This works equally well for sunsets and sunrises. Let the sun blow out (if it's in the frame) since it doesn't have any detail anyway. The part of the sky you meter on will be tamed into the 18% region, giving it reasonable saturation, and the gradually darker parts of the sky will saturate even more. It really does work!

[Setter Dog]

The technique I use, as espoused by Dr. Steve Browne—rather well-known for his outdoor photography—is to spot meter on the brightest part of the sky that DOESN'T contain the sun. This works equally well for sunsets and sunrises. Let the sun blow out (if it's in the frame) since it doesn't have any detail anyway. The part of the sky you meter on will be tamed into the 18% region, giving it reasonable saturation, and the gradually darker parts of the sky will saturate even more. It really does work!

Another great idea to try. Thanks.

Jack

[Aaron28]

kinda like that idea! thanks