Having a hard time taking sunset shots correctly.

[Stephane]

Looks like while you pilled up your ND grad and pol filters, you forgot filter factors (I say that because even the sky is underexposed).

[Robert Hughes]

Easy fix is to use a green screen and put your city in front of it! Hey, if David Cameron can do it, so can you...

[Rakesh Malik]

Looks like while you pilled up your ND grad and pol filters, you forgot filter factors (I say that because even the sky is underexposed).

That's precisely the mistake that I made the first time I used ND grads on the 4x5

[z_photo]

a rule of thumb is to expose the brightest part of the sky by one stop over mid tone. if you use an ND filter spot meter the brightest part of the sky through the filter amd check exposure in darker areas. that is the general starting point i use with great success.

[ljb0904]

Hey since you have a digital camera, why not use your meter to make exposures with the digital just like you would the 4x5. That is setup up digital camera, spot meter, place grad on digital camera lens, make exposure, check results. Your digicam is a fantastic learning tool.

Also, if you are shooting in to the sunset, you may want to consider a reverse grad on top of a regular grad. I find for most scenes a two stop grad is good when shooting away from the sun, and I need 3 stops shooting into the sun (sometimes more is helpful).

Not to be calling you stupid, but you did have the dark side of the grad up, yeah? (And I've made many a stupid mistake )

[mrladewig]

Hey since you have a digital camera, why not use your meter to make exposures with the digital just like you would the 4x5. That is setup up digital camera, spot meter, place grad on digital camera lens, make exposure, check results. Your digicam is a fantastic learning tool.

To do this, you must understand that the digital will not necessarily match the behavior of the film exactly. This also does not apply if you are doing close focus/macro on the large format. But it can act as an instant verification that the exposure criteria is in the right general range. If the camera is on ISO 100 and your film is ISO 100, you should get a usable image from the digital.

What is important to know is that a digital camera may indicate ISO100, but may actually be performing as ISO 64 or ISO 125 (see DXOmark). It depends on the camera and ISO setting. In addition, the dynamic range of a digital camera is not a great match for film. It may have more or less dynamic range than your intended film.

But again, if your spot meter indicates a particular exposure, then you should end up with a pretty good exposure on a digi cam with an equivalent if you're going to get a good exposure on the LF camera.