Settings for shooting sunrise and sunset

Moose

I was talking with a fellow 60D owner over on my Facebook page and he was wondering which setting to use for capturing sunrise and sunset. I thought it would be beneficial to share our conversation with all of you...

Vinay's Question: Just got the 60D with 70-200mm f/4L USM. What settings do you use for shooting sunrise and sunset?

Moose's Answer: Congrats on the new 60D and the 70-200mm f/4L; that's quite a combination!

So if you're shooting sunrises and sunsets, the key here is AE Lock (see page 122 of the manual). You'll want to lock the exposure for the sky (by pressing the * icon) and then recompose the shot to include the landscape or city scape.

If you want to correctly expose the sky and landscape, you'll need to compose an HDR shot. In order to capture and compose an HDR shot, you'll need to utilize the AEB Auto Exposure Bracketing feature (see page 121). This will capture the same shot three times all at different exposures. You then take those three shots and combine them in an HDR program like Photomatix Pro.