Shooting a Sunset
If you are not aware of which cloud formations are conducive to beautiful sunsets, you will waste valuable time and film on an inferior sunset.
And, if you have not checked around and found out what makes for good sunset photographs, you will not even be aware that your sunset pics are inferior.
If you do not know that the final minute of a sunset is most critical you might miss the perfect moment. The sun descends at such a rapid rate that you can actually see it move. Thus every second counts.
And, if you are not aware that you shouldn’t just take a direct reading with your meter, you will end up severely under-exposed because the sun is aimed directly at your meter. You must open up at least two to three stops in order to get proper exposure on the clouds and water where the light, that gets to the film, is a lot weaker.
This photo is an example of one option a photographer can choose when shooting a sunset. Here the photographer has chosen to have the water and clouds exposed properly while living the people underexposed and creating silhouettes.
i need more detail and examples. please
what are some questions you have that you’d like explained better?
its a very informative site, for those who learn more about the techniques who used in photography.
Will you use an aperture of >20’s to shoot a sunset with low speed of a second maybe? thanks
We cannot give you a specific setting to get a good sunset exposure. From the article we’ve given you some guidelines to use in shooting but because of the intense nature of sunset light and the rapid changing of it’s intensity as it sets each shot will be different. As the article directs it is best to get a reading of the light and then open your aperture a few stops to ensure that nothing is under exposed. In reality you may want to bracket your shots- or take a few stops to get a feel for the right exposure. Sunsets are a tough subject to control but the product is well worth the effort.
This might sound stupid but I never understand when people say, for example, “proper exposure on the clouds and water where the light”. Does that mean when I’m holding the shutter button halfway I should be directing that onto the clouds or something? and then repositioning it onto my subject?? I dont understand!! Thanks!
Jenna this is a difficult concept to understand and also to explain. I hope that you’ll try it out and the practice will help you to understand more than anything else. What happens is that during a sunset there is very intense light from the sun. So you have the intense values of the sun against low levels of light on other subjects such as water, clouds, people etc. Digital photography is not quite as good at capturing those extremes as film and so you end up having an image that is a well exposed sunset with silhouettes or well exposed subjects with an over exposed sunset. So the photographer has a decision to make: either take a reading of the sunset with the meter to get the silhouettes or take a reading with the meter on your subject, away from the sunset and then shoot with those settings. Of course there are places in between that may end up being the right exposure that you want and that is why we suggest taking a few different exposures when shooting until you begin to understand how the lighting at sunset works.
There is no mention at all in your tips about the temperature of the Light (Sunlight). Would you not compensate for the same.What techniques can be adopted to keep the colour/hue in tact for different measures of light temperature?
There are color meters out there with high costs. If you would like to do an OK job at measuring temperature you can just put a piece of white toilet paper in front of your camera and use a light meter accordingly.