Sunset X5 still images. In need of advice.

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I'm trying to get nice still images and video of a sunset. I tried a bunch of different manual settings but could not seem to get the trees lit up while the sun wasn't so strong. Any sort of advice would be appreciated as I'm very new. This is just the JPEG pulled straight from the card.
 

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This is what High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography was invented for.

There is no camera in the world that can expose the sky and the trees properly in this shot. So you take three photos; one with the sky exposed properly, one with the trees exposed properly, and one in between. Then you combine them in an editor, which (hopefully) uses the properly-exposed portion of each.

I use the Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) photo mode in my Inspire 1, then use Adobe Lightroom to create the HDR image. The Inspire has an HDR mode that I have never tried, so I can't vouch for that.
 
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Shot in raw and edited in Lightroom.
Raw makes a big difference shooting sunsets.
 

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Did you shoot in DNG, RAW mode? I'll be happy to show you exactly how to get the results you are looking for is you shot in RAW MODE?????

Kirk
 
I did shoot in raw but came to work and posted the saved file from my phone :/ so it was just the JPEG. I'm shooing more tonight, what do you want me to get just one raw?
 
I did shoot in raw but came to work and posted the saved file from my phone :/ so it was just the JPEG. I'm shooing more tonight, what do you want me to get just one raw?

Put your fav. RAW image on Dropbox or some other share site. Then, POST the link here to that RAW file. The file should end in .dng

I'll take it, and do a screen capture movie of what I do to the image and then post that movie and the fixed image here.

Will that help you?

Kirk
 

As long as you shoot in Raw you should be able to pull detail out of the shadows and highlights. The only part that might cause some problems is the sun as it is very bright compared to any shadows.You could try bracketing as InterMurph has suggested but in most cases should be able to find all the details in one shot as the X5 has very good latitude with exposures, 12 stops.

Using the histogram in the Go App is very helpful as it instantly lets you know if any part of the image is either over or under exposed. The Zebra feature is also very helpful in determining over exposure. Here is an image from a week ago, the original file is RAW, I exposed for the highlights and opened up the shadows in Photoshop, same can be done in lightroom.

 
Well said. Bracketing is probably your best solution. I would crop it. It's a beautiful shot.
 
i find it very easy to shoot multi-exposure and then process into hdr images. i don't care much for the onboard .hdr so i do it myself. the image attached is 3 separate hdr images (3 exposures) then merged into one image for the panorama
 

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Very nice work Ryan. Time permitting it is exactly what I'm thinking to do; NZ Alps will be my subject > from the East and from the West.
 

Looks like poopy!! Kidding, amazing shot!!!
 
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