Technically speaking, it reminds me that when I was a film photographer I spent lot of money in rolls devoted to the setting sun 🙂 While it seems that there are just so few things on the shot, there are often very funny optic effects. I even remember to have photographed a “novaja zemlja” which is a strange, extreme effect that makes the sun, already beyond the horizon, to appear on the sea as a flat stip of melt metal (I understand that the effect is common at very high latitudes, while I saw it in the Mediterranean).

Digital cameras have definitely been an improvement for my wallet. On the other side, while I’ve not dedicated myself to shooting at the setting sun as in the past, I’ve got always problems with the exposure. In short, either I have burned out parts, or the rest of the world is extremely dark. Film seemed to handle this kind of shots better, but perhaps it’s just me. Honestly, I didn’t try with my latest 14 bit camera, which could handle the exposure better. So far I’ve found that the only way to get a non burned shot, with a non extremely dark surroundings, is to hope for a thick layer of foggy atmosphere just over the sea. Your opinion?

Rising sun. Novaja zemlja sounds very special. I’ave been at some high latitudes but have never seen it. No opinion; just fact. If the sun is muted by fog or mist or light clouds you can easily create images of a properly exposed sun with a natural sky color. On clear mornings it is impossible to do that. The sun is so, so bright that when you expose for it properly the surrounding sky will go black. In New Mexico if you try to shoot the huge sun more than 15 minutes after sunrise at ISO 50, 1/8000 sec, at f/64 (with the 2X TC on the lens), you will overexpose the sun (unless you add a 3-stop drop-in ND. Film was exactly the same. artie

Cheers,
Dennis