6 Tips for Taking Great Sunset Photos

Hi everyone

Just thought I might share my experience on taking sunset pictures with
this group. Hope it's useful - try these six tricks to capture powerful
photos imbued with the beauty and positive feelings of sunsets.

1. Always get a full view
Position yourself on a beach or a highpoint to allow an unrestricted
view of the sun for maximum impact. An alternative is to capture the
sun falling between trees, next to an attractive monument or reflecting
off the water. Make sure your photo isn't too busy with other objects
that distract attention.

2. Just keep shooting
More attempts will increase your chances of getting the right results.
As the sun gets lower, it tends to get redder as well, so your results
should improve in the final moments of a sunset.

3. Be on the lookout for clouds
Sunsets on cloudy evenings are more colorful and interesting than
sunsets on clear evenings. While you may not actually capture the sun
itself in these photos, capturing an amazing variety of colors and rich
cloudy textures will make up for it.

4. Shoot off-center
Bring more life to your sunset photos by positioning the horizon away
from the center of your photo. Instead, keep it near the bottom of the
shot to dramatically highlight the sky. In combination with this,
leaving some foreground in the shot, such as a person or a tree, will
give greater interest and give you a great opportunity to work on
silhouette photographs.

5. Try to use multiple exposure settings
Your camera's light meter will often under-expose sunsets because there
is still quite a bit of light, so bracketing (taking several shots at
different exposures) may be needed to find the perfect exposure. A
little under-exposure can help to make the colors of a sunset richer.
If you want to include the details of a person in the foreground, try
using fill flash and night mode. This will bring out their details
while still allowing enough exposure to get rich colors - remember to
use a tripod in this case to avoid camera shake.

6. Zoom In
It is effective to use a long focal length for sunsets, because the sun
will appear much larger and more impressive in the sky. Either choose
the longest optical zoom lens setting on your camera or use a longer
telephoto lens on your SLR.
Gary Hendricks
http://www.basic-digital-photography.com

In article .com,
wrote:

Just thought I might share my experience on taking sunset pictures with
this group. Hope it's useful - try these six tricks to capture powerful
photos imbued with the beauty and positive feelings of sunsets.

Jeez...let me print this out so I can take it with me next time.

In article .com,
wrote:

Just thought I might share my experience on taking sunset pictures with
this group. Hope it's useful - try these six tricks to capture powerful
photos imbued with the beauty and positive feelings of sunsets.

Jeez...let me print this out so I can take it with me next time.

Gary, Thanks for sharing. Very interesting perspective.

I.

Gary, Thanks for sharing. Very interesting perspective.

I.

wrote:
Hi everyone

Just thought I might share my experience on taking sunset pictures with
this group. Hope it's useful - try these six tricks to capture powerful
photos imbued with the beauty and positive feelings of sunsets.

snip

5. Try to use multiple exposure settings
Your camera's light meter will often under-expose sunsets because there
is still quite a bit of light, so bracketing (taking several shots at
different exposures) may be needed to find the perfect exposure. A
little under-exposure can help to make the colors of a sunset richer.
If you want to include the details of a person in the foreground, try
using fill flash and night mode. This will bring out their details
while still allowing enough exposure to get rich colors - remember to
use a tripod in this case to avoid camera shake.

snip

With a digicam, you can quickly find the right exposure. Use the manual exposure settings. Take a photo with whatever
setting you think is right, look at the result on the LCD screen, adjust the setting. Once you get it, you can up the
exposure time or the lens opening as the sunset goes along.

You don't have to get the exposure exactly right. You can make adjustments with image editing software. I've found that
darkening a somewhat over-exposed photo of a sunset can sometimes bring out cloud colors that you didn't see by eye.

Never point the camera at a sun that is too bright to look at with your eye. You could ruin the sensor.

Marvin wrote:

Never point the camera at a sun that is too bright to look at with your
eye. You could ruin the sensor.

That would mean the sun has to be completely out of frame right, as in already
below the horizon?

--
--
Ben Thomas - Software Engineer - Melbourne, Australia

My Digital World:
Kodak DX6490, Canon i9950, Pioneer A05;
Hitachi 37" HD plasma display, DGTEC 2000A,
Denon 2800, H/K AVR4500, Whatmough Encore;
Sony Ericsson K700i, Palm Tungsten T.

Disclaimer:
Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not
relate to the official business of my employer shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it.

Marvin wrote:

Never point the camera at a sun that is too bright to look at with your
eye. You could ruin the sensor.

That would mean the sun has to be completely out of frame right, as in already
below the horizon?

--
--
Ben Thomas - Software Engineer - Melbourne, Australia

My Digital World:
Kodak DX6490, Canon i9950, Pioneer A05;
Hitachi 37" HD plasma display, DGTEC 2000A,
Denon 2800, H/K AVR4500, Whatmough Encore;
Sony Ericsson K700i, Palm Tungsten T.

Disclaimer:
Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not
relate to the official business of my employer shall be understood as neither
given nor endorsed by it.

Ben Thomas wrote:
Marvin wrote:

Never point the camera at a sun that is too bright to look at with
your eye. You could ruin the sensor.


That would mean the sun has to be completely out of frame right, as in
already below the horizon?


Or out of the frame to the right or the left or up or down.
Or behind a cloud, a bird, a kite, a tree, or some
landscape feature, etc. I could keep going but you get the
picture. (That was a pun!). With any camera, digital or
film, pointing the camera at a bright sun has the potential
for damage. Besides, it is usually the clouds or a
partially blocked sun that your are interested in for a
sunset photo.

George E. Cawthon wrote:
Ben Thomas wrote:

Marvin wrote:

Never point the camera at a sun that is too bright to look at with
your eye. You could ruin the sensor.



That would mean the sun has to be completely out of frame right, as in
already below the horizon?


Or out of the frame to the right or the left or up or down. Or behind
a cloud, a bird, a kite, a tree, or some landscape feature, etc. I
could keep going but you get the picture. (That was a pun!). With any
camera, digital or film, pointing the camera at a bright sun has the
potential for damage. Besides, it is usually the clouds or a partially
blocked sun that your are interested in for a sunset photo.

Like this?

http://clarkvision.com/galleries/gal...2540a-600.html

http://clarkvision.com/galleries/gal...3372b-600.html

http://clarkvision.com/galleries/gal...waii-snst.html

These violated at least one of the 6 tips.

Roger