A foggy sunrise

[TravisL]

I want to know what you guys think about my exposure. The sun was bursting through that set of trees and was really bright. All the fog in the air was causing the sky to be overexposed when I tried to expose for the forground. My ND grad wasn't giving me a whole lot of help with holding the sky back. I think I got a decent image, but I need feedback as to how to make this better for next time I visit this spot. Because Im wanting ideas for a more perfect photo.

30mm
1/8s
f/22

[Doug Sundseth]

The dynamic range in the subject you chose is greater than your camera can capture in a single exposure. You are always going to get blown-out highlights, blocked-up shadows, or both. I think your photo was a good compromise given your situation.

If you want both highlight and shadow detail in that situation, you'll need to go to exposure stacking for HDR and tone map the resulting image to the dynamic range available to print or publish online. (There's not enough room in the margin* to explain HDR, but the information is pretty easy to find when you know what it's usually called.)

* With apologies to Fermat. 8-)