Day Eleven: Sunrise, Hendricks Head Light

An early rise gave way to some photography by both my partner and me. Nothing fancy, just our Nikons and our standard zooms, in my case the 16-85mm, and in hers the 18-55mm. Having 400 speed film loaded, I also brought along my Holga 120FN.

Hendrick's Head Light, Southport, Maine.
Holga 120FN, Kodak Portra 400

The trick with taking sunrise, sunset and night photographs is interpreting the exposure correctly for the effect you want. If your goal is to capture the scene as it actually appears, then you need to underexpose by up to two or more stops. The exact amount varies widely, so keep your exposure compensation finger at the ready, whether your control is a single dial, or a combination of buttons and command dials.

Of course, you needn’t worry about any of this with the Holga; you just compose and shoot, and fix it in post. I was betting that, at ISO 400, with the subdued morning light, the exposure would be just right to satisfy the rule above. I was right.

Cameras typically do a night for day act, making everything look as if it were shot in broad daylight. That’s fine for taking pictures of aquarium tanks where you want to see lots of color and detail, but not so much for times when you want to preserve the original mood.

Contrast is also important. Underexposure naturally saturates colors, but also decimates dark detail, so be sure to reduce contrast when shooting in Vivid mode. Vivid means both colorful, and contrasty. When you set your camera to Vivid, you’ll be enhancing both saturation and contrast. So, if your camera allows it, dial the contrast down in Vivid mode.

Hendrick's Head Light, Southport, Maine.
Nikon D90, AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm G.

As you can see the digital and analogue (film) versions are very different. The beautiful color in the sky prompted me to use a more expressive use of color. It’s much easier to tone down the color in post-processing than it is to add it where it never existed. So, when color is the key element, I prefer to shoot slightly on the colorful side. You don’t want to overdo it though, as saturation robs the image of shape.

Moon and Stars, looking east.
Nikon D90, AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm G.

Moments later, the sky bursts with color.
Nikon D90, AF-S NIKKOR 16-85mm G.