On Sun, 3 Aug 2008 07:43:56 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
: Thank you all -- there is much more to this than I anticipated and I
: will try to absorb the info.
:
: What started this was an attempt to photograph the sunrise in a rural
: area. Not just before sunrise, when the sky and clouds are
: illuminated, but just after. I don't think it possible to describe
: the mornings here, but to make an analogy, it looks as if there is a
: huge conflagration in the next field each morning at about 5:00am.
: When the sun breaches the horizon, it is a flaming ball of intense,
: bright, flickering orange, that appears almost "sky" sized. However,
: it appears as nothing more than a disappointing white circle in
: photos. Someone suggested using a pair of polarized sunglasses as a
: filter, but this changes only the surrounding colours - sky/trees/
: cornfields, while the sun remains a burnout. I am not looking
: directly at the sun, but using the camera screen to focus. And I do
: know that pointing the camera at the sun for long periods will damage
: it. I just want to know how they manage to do such things
: commercially and to preserve the memory for myself.

That makes it sound as though your problem is a fairly simple case of
overexposure. If you're using auto exposure settings, it may be that your lens
can't stop down enough to get the exposure right, in which case using a lower
ISO setting should help. (I believe someone suggested you turn the ISO setting
up, but that's wrong. You want to tell the camera to make the sensor less
light-sensitive, and you do that by using a lower ISO setting.) Also, make
sure you use center-weighted metering; that's the usual way to avoid blown
highlights in a backlit scene (which a sunrise or sunset is, by definition).
As a last resort, you could add a neutral-density filter.

BTW, I don't believe I've ever photographed a sunrise, but it figures to be
more difficult to get right than a sunset. That's because sunsets get dimmer
and redder, so the extra shots you take have a good chance of being usable and
may even be better. But if you let the right moment get away with a sunrise,
you may as well pack up and come back tomorrow.

Bob