Shoot before sunrise for atmospheric landscapes

Techniques

24 October 2007 14:06

Shooting landscapes before sunrise is a magical experience. For an hour or two it starts to get lighter and there’s an eerie calm – the perfect time for atmospheric landscapes. Getting out when most people are still tucked up in bed means even in the busiest areas you’ll probably have the area to yourself. Traffic will be almost non-existent and the light pollution is often much less than just after sunset.

On clear mornings the sky comes alive with the glow from the sun just below the horizon and the landscape is often veiled with mist and fog. With so little light falling on the landscape it’s often best to search out graphic details and shapes, rather than going for the broader views. You’ll also find the sun can be quite cool in tone.

Just like shooting snow, mist can cause problems when it comes to metering and getting the right exposure. If you use a standard meter reading with the mist taking up most of the frame you’ll get dull, grey results. This is because the system will assume that you want the overall scene to be recorded as an average midtone.

Instead, use the centre-weighted metering mode and once you’ve framed your shot take a reading for the overall scene. For our shot this was 1/2sec at f/16. As the frame was full of light tones we needed to set +2 stops exposure compensation to record the lightest areas of mist as white. If there’s less mist in your shot, try +1 stop.

With these types of scenes it’s best to bracket your exposures, taking a series of images using different amounts of exposure compensation. With misty scenes try using +1, +2 and +3 stops of exposure compensation.

At dawn, shutter speeds can easily run into seconds or even minutes, so a tripod is essential. Try to use the tripod at its lowest height possible to get your shot, and avoid raising the tripod’s central column if you can, by using the main tripod legs to raise or lower camera height.