Shooting the M6 Mark II into a sunrise

davecheng wrote:

A pretty sunrise over midtown Toronto distracted me this morning from my coffee and crossword.

The lack of critical sharpness from my old lens aside, I found the dynamic range of this tiny sensor to be really quite impressive.

Very nice image. The M6 II does have a great dynamic range. I think your shot was helped by the Sun shining through some clouds and haze which diminished its brightness to the point where you could capture its disk. Also the shaded side of the buildings look to have had some skylight and perhaps reflected light from other buildings which also brightened the shadows some.

I've found that in Florida, with a clear-sky sunrise or sunset, it's difficult to capture the Sun's disk with the M6II unless I intentionally underexpose by 1, 2 or even 3 EV (exposure compensation). Or take an HDR shot, which I've come to dislike as I can't get a RAW image for the best post-processing. For a clouded or hazy sunrise/sunset dimming the Sun, it's possible without exposure comp.

Here are some examples, I happened to shoot tonight's sunset on a bike ride with the kit EF-M 15-45 IS STM, this is typical of a clear sky sunset:

Canon M6 Mk II, 15-45mm IS STM, 17mm, ISO 100, 1/400s, f5.6, -0.3 EV exposure compensation

Here's this morning's sunrise, intentionally underexposed 1.3 EV -- it just captures the Sun's disk but there is virtually no shadow detail.

Canon M6 Mk II, EF-S 55-250mm IS STM (additional cropping), ISO 100, 1/4000s, f5.6, -1.3 EV exposure compensation