Pro photography?

Is the 30mm lens your only lens? It's not telephoto enough to capture the sun at the size you perceive it to be. To capture the sun as a large ball, you're going to need at least a 300mm lens and closer to 500mm or even longer. The other problem you had was that your camera was not exposing for the sun. You could try setting the meter on spot and centering the sun, and then underexposing by about a stop or so to maintain color in the sun. Auto bracketing will work with a bias on under exposing.

Here's a photo I took with a 200mm lens on Kodachrome film:

Quote:
I just broke into pro photography about a year ago. I own Rebel XTi with a Sigma 30mm/F1.4. I am self taught and still have lots to learn. My question is this: A couple weeks ago I saw the most beautiful BIG orange sun setting. It was one big ball. I felt very close to it. I tried to photograph it and was very surprised to see it wasn't in the picture. I threw the camera on auto setting and it just captured the sun in a small pale yellowish/white. Is it my lense or my settings. I tried several settings to no avail. I was so disappointed to miss it. Any suggestions or help appreciated.

thanks for your reply Larry. What I mean by pro is that I set up my own studio and have a business. I mostly do children, seniors, family and I did my first 3 weddings this summer. That is my only lense but I am trying to decide what lense I want/need next. I think I want a telephoto but I need it for weddings and portraits the most. I don't usually shoot much scenery but I try sometimes. I don't know what "spot meter" means, is that the focusing spot? I have a sekonic light meter but I don't like it at all. I use a grey card for exposure & white balance and it works pretty well for me. Any suggestions for reading to learn more about F-stops, focal length, metering etc? Thanks so much. Beautiful picture of the sun, just what I was trying to capture.

There are usually three different metering modes. Average, Matrix, and Spot. The spot mode just reads a very small area in the center of the viewfinder. You set the metering for spot and take a reading just outside of the sun and use that setting for a base for bracketing.

I have evaluative metering, partial, & center-weighted average. Is this what you are referring to? I really appreciate the information. Thanks. I'm studying everything I can get my hands on and would like to take some classes but there are none nearby where I can go.

Robin

I'd go with Partial which is the center 9%. You're looking for a base reading from which to bracket. There should be a 9% circle in the middle of the viewfinder. Make sure it's off to the side and reading the sun. After you get through shooting, make sure to set the meter back o you don't screw up your other photographs.

I'll give this a try. Thank you.

There are several circumstances in photography where you will need to not use the camera on "automatic" or at least know how to fool the camera into thinking its something else. Such times are shooting into the sun wether directly or not. you have seen so many shots where a group of people are gathered in front of the son and the exposure is correct maybe for the overal amount of light, but not for the faces and subjects front. The same is even more true in capturing sunsets and sunrises. If the sun is really big in the viewfinder, even on some center weighted setting, you will most likely need 1 or 2 more stops of exposure. And of course a lot has to do with the desired end result. The great thing about shooting in RAW mode is the ability to alter the exposure a little in processing. I have some shots where I have actually opened the RAW file at 3 different settings to get perfect exposure on all sides of the subject in the sun.

Snow scenes will also play havoc with the meter. But too much over exposure on them will wash the highlights out to zero and beyond. There again shooting in RAW and combining several exposures will yield a shot no one could have ever taken with a film camera.

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