First Sunrise

[Dylan-06]

This is my first attempt at a sunrise and I need help !!
There was a low mist covering the fields, which doesn't come across in the image
I used a ND filter, but think maybe should have used ND Grad ??
How should I have metered for the grass and mist to be visible ??
Any other advice would be welcome too

Canon EOS 7D
Exposure 1.6
Aperture f/11.0
Focal Length 28 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias -1/3 EV

[Thomas89]

Hi, please include exif data as well.

I also can't access the bigger version of the picture as it seems to be set to privat on flickr. But it looks like the problem is your location because the light doesn't hit the mist at this angle. How did it look 10-15 minutes later?

[navcom]

ND grad was the filter to use. A solid ND grad won't do anything for you but slow down your shutter speed...which is irrelevant for the shot. A solid ND filter is typically used for something like getting silky flowing water.

The reason you don't have any detail in the foreground is because you have a very large dynamic range in the image (range between the brightest and darkest points). If you expose for the sky so you can pull all the colors, the foreground will be black. If you expose for the foreground, the sky will be blown out with no color.

An ND grad is used to control this dynamic range. It's half shaded and half clear. You put the shaded area over the really bright area, which in this case would be the sky. It would have pushed back the intensity of the sky so it would expose at or close to the same as the foreground and make the exposure more like what your eye would see. This would bring out the foreground detail and also the fog without blowing out the sky.

Bummer! Looks like it was a beautiful scene!

Hope that helps!

[Dylan-06]

sorry, I've put the exif data up now.

@ navcom, thanks for a great explanation, tend to take the view for granted ( it's from the end of my garden) and it did look beautiful yesterday morning. I shall take your advice and try again over the weekend

Thanks