How to take spectacular sunsets shots every time
Great sunsets are characterised by the orange or red glow in the sky. This is actually caused by dust and pollution in the atmosphere. This means that the best place to find consistently good sunsets is out in the country, to the east of a large city or conurbation. The poor air rising from the city will make the sun and sky turn red.
The best sunsets are found in low-lying areas. If the sun actually sets behind a mountain from where you are, it may not be low enough to cause an interesting sunset before it disappears. For the most spectacular sunset shots, there have to be clouds in the sky. Even when it's cloudy overhead, if there is clear weather to the east, you may still get a great sunset.
Once you have chosen your location, aim to get there at least one hour before the sun actually sets. That will give you time to look for some interesting foreground in your shots. You don't need to have any foreground interest but it often helps especially if the sky is not truly amazing by itself.
The fun really starts when the sun is low enough to light the underside of the clouds, usually with a yellow colour to start with, which becomes gradually orange and eventually red. From this point to the actual setting of the sun is only a matter of minutes, so take lots of photographs. The sky changes dramatically and very quickly during this time so keep shooting. Keep taking pictures after the sun finally sets because, for several minutes longer, it will still be lighting up the clouds.
Camera settings
There is so much contrast between the bright sun and the dark clouds or foreground that it can easily fool your camera into giving you the wrong exposure. It's not actually the wrong exposure, just not the best one. If you don't fancy setting the exposure manually, then use the exposure compensation control to see the effects of different exposures. You often need to deliberately underexpose the shot to bring out more detail in the sky and turn the foreground into a silhouette.
Don't use auto colour balance. This will try to compensate for the changing colour of the sky and diminish the whole effect. Set your colour balance to daylight and the changing colour of the sky will show up properly in your photographs.
A tripod, or other means of camera support is useful in two ways. First of all, if you take several exposures of the same shot (also called bracketing), you can combine the best features of each on in a photo-editing program. This is a technique known as high dynamic realism or recording (HDR), and can produce amazing results.
The other time a tripod comes into its own is once the sun has set and is just lighting the clouds. With your camera on a solid support, you can keep shooting as it gets darker by simply using a slower shutter speed. The alternative would be to increase the ISO number, which may spoil your pictures by introducing too much noise.
Sunsets look amazing to the eye and the photographs of them should be equally incredible. Just follow the few tips above and you will soon be producing your own spectacular sunset shots.
About the Author
Colin Aiken is a professional photographer based in the United Kingdom. His new website is full of photographs, useful information and news about photography. Take a look at: http://www.lovethepictures.co.uk
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