To create astonishing images of the sunset or sunrise you need to pay attention to a couple of simple details.
If you focus on these things you will make sure your sunset photos look professional and captivating. Special gear is not necessary for these shots – these simple tips will be all you need.
There are two aspects that often lead to poor quality sunset shots, exposure and color. Both of these are easily overcome but you will need to override your cameras automatic settings.
To maintain good definition in the sky, rather than just the sun, try reading your exposure from an area of sky near the sun but without the sun in shot. Alternatively, you can shoot manually or by using exposure compensation. In most cases you will find that you need to increase the exposure – longer shutter speed or wider aperture – to bring back definition to the sky.
If you are shooting with an auto white balance, the camera will tend to over compensate for the deep reds and orange of the sky, trying to neutralise the colour. Set a different white balance preset, cloudy or shade often work well, manually set a white balance using a white card or to shoot RAW.
One of the biggest mistakes newcomers make in sunset/sunrise shots is to ignore composition. The end result is a shot that is half sky, half land with the sun dead center. Great sunset shots however, use the traditional rules of composition or break them if required.
Many articles will suggest the use of a telephoto lens and this is indeed a good way to get an amazing looking sun. The use of the long lens allows you to compress the apparent perspective but to do this you are going to need a foreground subject. This can be anything from a structure to people but it should work as a compositional device to direct your eyes towards the sunset.
One of the biggest issues with wide angle sunsets will be lens flare. Making sure your lens is very clean will help but it’s not always possible to eliminate. Some shots can even look amazing by utilising the lens flare as a compositional tool.
You don’t need to actually have the sun in every sunset shot. You can silhouette it against a foreground subject or merely suggest at it from a golden sky or reflections in water. Try experimenting with different approaches, with and without the sun in shot.
Read Jason Row’s full article on sunset photography over at Light Stalking.
Source: Light Stalking
