Improve Your Landscape Photography by Jim Harmer

Author:Jim Harmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: nature, camera, photography, beginner, landscape, dslr
Publisher: Jim Harmer

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Chapter Five: Sunrise, Sunset

Most photographers take too simplistic a view of sunset photography. Perhaps this is because it is simple to take beautiful sunset photos. The scene of a sunset is so colorful and vibrant that it is difficult to make the landscape photo look dull; however, professional landscape photographers know a few tricks that drastically improve the impact of a landscape photo. This chapter will reveal the best tips and tricks that I have learned from my personal experience, and also from other pros in the industry.

Hands down, the most common mistake in shooting sunsets is to pick up and leave the instant that the sun dips below the horizon. Sunsets are beautiful when the sun is just above the horizon, but the brightness of the sun often reduces the brilliance of the colors in a sunset. In reality, there are two sunsets each night, and most people only watch one of them.

The first sunset occurs while the sun dips below the horizon. This is the sunset that everyone watches; however, about 20 minutes after sunset, the colors will become rich and bright again because the sun will have passed low enough under the horizon for its emitted light to become vibrant again. Usually, the “second sunset” is more saturated with color than the first sunset. This is the great key to shooting sunrise and sunset photos.

The only difficulty with shooting after the sun sets is that it gets darker, which means you’ll need to use slower shutter speeds and a tripod. Without the tripod, the picture may end up blurry. So next time you go out to shoot the sunset, stay late and bring the tripod.

Most people find that sunsets look prettier when they are slightly under-exposed rather than keeping the same exposure as is typically used for daytime images. A simple method for getting a slightly darker image without utilizing manual mode is to use approximately one stop of negative exposure compensation. Exposure compensation tells the camera to find what exposure it thinks is correct, and then go slightly darker (or brighter) depending on what compensation you selected. Exposure compensation is easy to change, but the buttons used to adjust it varies by camera. Consult your manual to learn more.

While underexposing the image and waiting for the second sunset will improve your sunset images, sometimes there are no clouds in the sky or the clouds block the sun too much. If conditions are not optimal to achieve vibrant color, you might need to cheat a little bit. Photographers “cheat” on their sunsets by adjusting the white balance on your camera to “cloudy” to get warmer tones in the sunset. This will produce stronger yellow tones in the image. Also, the white balance can be adjusted to bring out the purple tones in the image. No two cameras have white balance in the same place on the camera, so it’s probably best to consult your camera’s manual to see how to change this simple setting.

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