Sunset

[pezgt]

Hello...I'm new to the forum and looking to greatly improve my picture taking skills. This picture was shot from my front yard. I get alot of cool sunsets and woul like to improve. Any suggestions would be greatly apprecciated. Thanks for looking.

[Saralonde]

Hi, pezgt, welcome to the forum! I'm from Pennsylvania, too, but I sure can't get beautiful sunsets from my frontyard! This is a nice sunset and your positioning of the horizon is good. Since your picture has no other subject then color, perhaps taking it a little earlier would have given you more color in the clouds. Cropping can also help draw attention to just the sunset and eliminate any extras that do not enhance the effect. Try reading this to help improve. http://digital-photography-school.co...s-and-sunsets/

[which_chick]

Wow, pezgt, you have a lot more sky than I do! (My sunsets are always behind the big mountain back of my house. I get good dawns, though, which I guess evens things out -- except for the getting-up factor.)

A useful exercise for me was to sit and watch the progression of a couple of sunrises, camera in hand, taking a series of pictures as the sunrise happened, to see when the best light was. For sunrises, I actually get the best light before the sun is in the sky. (I thought it would be after, but it's not. I have photographic proof.) Once the sun clears the mountain to my east, things get less colorful and more just-plain-bright... the magic for me is definitely before the sun comes up. I'm not sure if that transfers to sunsets or not, which is why I'm suggesting you watch a few. There probably *is* a best-light point, though, and it's worth finding out when that is.

Other than watching a couple of sunsets with a camera and taking a series of pictures during same to see when the best light happens, I'd include even less of the landscape. Put more of the sky in your sunset pictures -- that's the interesting part. You might try getting down in the dirt to catch some foreground stuff (Trees, maybe? It looks like there's a fencerow or something in the foreground of your image.) silhouetted against the sky, but if there's nothing for you to work with on that front, just the sky is okay, too.

[pezgt]

Thanks guys...I'll try and get some earlier shots and put more emphasis on the sky, as the field is kind of busy with hedgerows, barns, powerlines and such. Thanks for the link saralonde.