Is this to Dark ?

[Jo.T]

Hi all
Went out for and early morning shoot, couldnt resist this shot of the sun coming up over the mere. I have tried to lighten it in post production but i get to much graining and took another shot with some extra exposure but didnt get the effect with the sun. Is it to dark and is the sun enough of a focal point, any help with how i can improve the shot would be great thanks.
f 29
sec1/160
ISO 250

[navcom]

You probably aren't going to be able to recover much as the image was pretty underexposed. There are missing pixels in those dark areas that weren't recorded because it's too black and that is what is giving you the grainy look when you bump up the exposure in post.

My recommendation is to use a graduated neutral density filter to control the high dynamic range (range between brightest and darkest points in an image), which is really what the issue is. Since the range is so high, you are either going to have a well exposed foreground and blown out sky or a well exposed sky and black foreground. The camera (all cameras for the most part) cannot record this high of a dynamic range so something will have to be sacrificed without external help...which is what an ND grad is perfect for.

You could also use HDR software techniques to bracket different exposures and then combine them together later in post.

Do a search for either of these on the forum...tons of info. Hope that helps!

[Krusty79]

I have learned on this site that in general, you should not shoot with apertures smaller than about f/13 to avoid the effects of diffraction. I think that may be why your sun is blurry. That is a nice sunrise, though. If you shot in RAW, you could lighten the image more without getting the noise.

Also, if you're using a tripod, use the lowest ISO you can to minimize noise.

[EOBeav]

No, it's not too dark, if you're going for a silhouetted sunrise/sunset shot. There's certainly a place for those types of shots. Move your aperture up to f/16 or so, set your ISO at 100 (or the lowest it goes), and use a tripod. That should eliminate a lot of the noise that you're seeing.

[danbaileyphoto]

It's not so much that the shot is too dark, it's that there is not enough interesting subject matter to be highlighted by the dramatic light. Including some sort of a striking shape or subject element in the frame in would go a long way towards making a more dynamic image.

[secrettruelies]

I don't personally feel that it's too dark. It's an interesting photograph. Could be sharper.