Sunset… One word can make a lot of memories alive in a second. No matter how many sunsets I see, I still get fascinated with the view of a sunset. Who doesn’t?
The reason why sunset has been one of the most interesting subject for photography is because
- Every sunset is unique with the unique set of clouds or things in foreground.
- It gives you infinite variations of colors in one evening itself.
So, here are the things you need to keep in mind while doing sunset photography so that your sunsets become memorable for time to come.
Composition — Frame The Sunset Appropriately
The most important part of a sunset is the sun. But sun alone can not make your pictures wonderful. You need to take care of the complete view – the composition; like the clouds, when light passes from them you get various shades and as the clouds move and sun goes further down, you get different patterns. Make sure you take a longer shot to capture the whole view. It doesn’t mean you can not zoom into sun and get the frame filled with the big ball of fire. That can be interesting too. Make sure you know how you want to capture your sunset. No place is bad, be it a beach or a mountain or even in the middle of the city. What matters is how you decide on your composition and how you capture it.
Exposure Is The Key To Capture Beautiful Sunsets
Thumb rule says, if you are clicking the sun with the whole sky, go down on the exposure. One or two stops down on exposure. It works. It can help in putting all the things in foreground to look dark and you have a perfect back lit picture. Also a slight underexposure will result in more saturated colors. But be creative. There are no hard and fast rules.
Equipment
A digital camera or a DSLR (depending on what you want) with a normal lens will do. I have seen some good outputs from a wide angle lens but I won’t suggest that. That’s your call. Also make sure you carry a tripod, if in case you need to use low shutter speed. I prefer holding it my hand. I generally don’t go so slow on shutter speed that I need a tripod. But tripod is a good option. A good estimate is anything slower than 1/20sec can use a tripod.
You as a photographer and your creative outlook of sunset
“Patience is a virtue” makes absolute sense in photography. You need to wait for the right moment and be ready to click. If you are new click every five minutes because you don’t want to miss that special moment that only occurs once a day. At times you might have to hold the camera for several minutes in order to get the perfect picture you are looking for. Sunset is like a process. It takes a little time for the sun to set completely. But throughout the process you get huge variations and good chances to take a good picture. You get various shades in the sky during sunset. But you need to keep in mind that one shade combination will stay for a few minutes. Once gone, it will not come back. So, as a photographer you need to be ready for the right picture.
Additionally you can make the most of sunset photography from sunset photography tips, sunset photography examples, effect of golden / magic hour and composition techniques; that of including lines, patterns, rule of thirds, golden ratio and perspective.
Agos: pls proceed and thanks for the mention.
I have found that, if you get the sunset how you want it – meter on different parts of the sky. I normally set my camera’s metering to Center Weighted and take several shots metering on different parts of the scene. Meter and recompose using that exposure setting. It’s surprising what difference it can make to the image.
If you are shooting digital or don’t mind chewing film then combine this with bracketing too.
Yes will get similar shots, but how often will you be able to shoot sunsets behind the Pyramids, Bora Bora, etc.
Don’t be cheap and loose that moment !