A Few Basic Ideas
How to Take Sunset Pictures With a Digital Camera
By Garry Johnson
Along
the coastal waters, beaches are some of most beautiful places to view
and take pictures of sunsets. Morro Bay is one of those places with
some of the most beautiful sunsets imaginable. Each sunset as shown in
the photos illustrates that no matter where you are along the coast of
Morro Bay you will find a different impression at the end of day.
Beautiful
sunsets are universal. As you can see in the sunset photos provided,
you can take sunset images with or without clouds to make a great
photo. When the sun reaches days end, the light has to travel further
to reach the horizon. In doing that, less blue (shorter wavelengths) is
seen in the sky, this gives us bright colors in the sky. As each days
end, sunsets last only a few moments in time. This is the time
photographers have the opportunity to capture those remarkable sunset
images.
When
you are ready with a camera, whether it is a point & shoot or
SLR, I have a few easy tips to share with you about how I take sunset
pictures. To make a great sunset photo, you don't have to take the
picture directly in the sun. Look for other interest around you, pick
an area prior to waiting for the sun to set, have fun looking for a
spot to frame your sunset pictures, like trees, sand dunes, people,
city buildings, fishing wharfs, etc. Find out what time the sunsets,
you can generally find a local tidal guide that will give you the
sunset times. You should use a good sturdy tripod when possible. Not
only is the exposure very important, but also the composition is the
final answer to getting the best sunset image. One of the biggest
mistakes in taking sunsets is placing the horizon in the center of the
picture. The best way is to either place the horizon near the top or
near the bottom of the image. We call that the "Rules of thirds".
Settings
can vary from camera to camera, but the fun part is adjusting the
settings and viewing the image. There are many different techniques
that are useful when taking sunset pictures. I have listed a few
references that will give a broader spectrum for taking sunset
pictures. The following are a few ideas of mine about how I use my
digital camera settings to take sunset pictures:
·
Turn off the flash
· Tripod
· Some photographers use the manual focus. I do both. But it
is up to you
· While it depends on the lens used, an aperture of f 11 is
a good setting for all around sharpness
· Set the white balance to indoor (but try the sun icon too)
· Bracket your pictures settings to at least three picture
(high, low, normal)
· Adjust the EV compensation to the plus setting this can
vary from 0 to +5 (Also try the negative setting 0 to -5 to see
different results)
· The Histogram helps you decide if the exposure is correct
I
hope you enjoyed this section of Photo Talk and that I have given you
enough information to take better sunsets images. The most important
thing to remember, if doesn't work out the first time, there will
always be another sunset out there to try again.
Internet
References:
How
to Take Better Sunset Pictures by Jeff Wignall
How
To Take Sunset Pictures by Rob aka
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