Cambodia Trip - The Angkor Wat Sunrise

Sunrise at Angkor Wat.

The astonishing sunrise at Angkor Wat should always be a no-miss for travel photographers to Siem Reap. As beautiful as it is, to get an outstanding picture would require much luck. Unfortunately we didn't have the chance to witness the well-known sunrise in between the towers.

Similar to night photography, tripod will be necessary to allow long exposure. As with all photos, sunrise needs a point of interest and one of the best ways is to try to add some sort of silhouette into the shot. The symbolic structure of Angkor Wat is surely the best candidate for this. Silhouettes is very effective at adding mood and context to a sunrise shot. Also remember the rule of thirds in the composition and place elements like the horizon, sun or silhouettes off centre. Shooting RAW seems to be the key, but then I was shooting in JPEG and setting the WB to Cloudy for the sunrise. If you want a cooler moody shot, you can also experiment with other WB settings. Also try Vivid or Vivid Red on your color setting.

The S95 is smart enough to recognize a sunrise scene in Auto Mode. Instead, I always set it to Program Mode to allow more flexibility and to counter the lack of tripod. It's even better to use Aperture or Shutter Priority Mode to take a variety of shots at different exposures. Different exposures will produce a variety of different results so it’s worth taking more than just a few shots. The S95 offers the function of Exposure Bracketing where you take a few shots at both under and over the exposure level that the camera suggests (can also be used for HDR). 

Another exposure trick is to use the Auto Exposure Lock (AEL) function which allows you to point your camera at a darker place and lock in exposure for that spot and then compose the picture looking at the sunrise. This will get you a more overexposed shot. You can always set the function as your shortcut button. 

ISO 80, Shutter 1/50s with Aperture f4.0

Sometimes when shooting in extreme low light conditions, the S95 can have trouble focusing. If this is the case, you can consider switching to Manual Focus to ensure you get sharp shots.