Mojave Sunset

[lostinthewoods]

I took this picture the other day while traveling down I-40, westbound in California. I saw the sun was setting and I knew there was a rest area not far up the road and so I just had to stop to get the photo. This is what I came up with.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lostint...n/photostream/

Camera: Canon Powershot SX20 IS
Sunset setting
NOTE: Sorry about the link it won't let me add the image to the post...weird.

I feel like there is too much ground in the picture, which is uninteresting. I decided this when I was reviewing the photos I took (I actually took a bunch, this is the one I liked the best). At the time I was taking the photos, it seemed like a good idea. Do you agree or disagree? Any other issues that your trained eye can spot that my newbie eyes simply cant see (yet)?

[RichardTaylor]

The image appears to be set to private.

[lostinthewoods]

Originally Posted by RichardTaylor

The image appears to be set to private.

Whoops! Fixed. Sorry about that.

[Hill Country Hack]

I took a look at your images and for me #4 is the best of the bunch. I originally was going to aks if you waited around longer to see what the light was going to do to the clouds.

The crop on #4 is much better as you got rid of the uninteresting foreground and thus moved the horizon into the lower 1/3 of the frame. You get two bonus points. One point for stopping to enjoy the sunset and one point for having your camera and using it.

[lostinthewoods]

Originally Posted by Hill Country Hack

I took a look at your images and for me #4 is the best of the bunch. I originally was going to aks if you waited around longer to see what the light was going to do to the clouds.

The crop on #4 is much better as you got rid of the uninteresting foreground and thus moved the horizon into the lower 1/3 of the frame. You get two bonus points. One point for stopping to enjoy the sunset and one point for having your camera and using it.

Thanks for the feedback! And thanks for checking out the pictures, the account is new and so I am still adding more.

And yes when ever I am taking pictures of a sunset I stay until it's pretty much dark because every sunset is a little different and you just never know what kind of light will pop out. Sometimes a sunset is better after the sun has just dipped below the horizon, other times the best photos are taken when the sun is long gone and the sky is a deep red. It all depends on your location and the clouds. I have found that sunsets look different in the south, than they do in the north. The uniqueness of each sunset is why sunsets are one of my favorite things to photograph.

[Krusty79]

Well the sky looks good, but the tougher part is getting the sky and ground both correctly exposed. To do that, you'll need some combination of a graduated neutral density filter/bracketing your shots/shooting RAW so you can make an exposure blend or HDR. Your camera cannot capture the dynamic range in this scene, so the foreground is way underexposed. It is a common landscape issue and will be until they can make cameras that capture more than 9 stops of light (your eye can see about 20).

[lostinthewoods]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

Well the sky looks good, but the tougher part is getting the sky and ground both correctly exposed. To do that, you'll need some combination of a graduated neutral density filter/bracketing your shots/shooting RAW so you can make an exposure blend or HDR. Your camera cannot capture the dynamic range in this scene, so the foreground is way underexposed. It is a common landscape issue and will be until they can make cameras that capture more than 9 stops of light (your eye can see about 20).

Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately, my camera can not shoot in RAW. While it is a good camera, it is a beginners camera and still falls under the category of "Point and Shoot", at least in my opinion. I am saving up for a better camera though!

[Krusty79]

You can probably still bracket your jpgs if you use a tripod then. If you shoot at -2,0 & +2 EV, then that should help overcome the dynamic range issue. You will have to learn how to use a layer mask in PP, though (it's not that hard) in order to make an exposure blend, or even HDR. The exposure blends look more natural.

[lostinthewoods]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

You can probably still bracket your jpgs if you use a tripod then. If you shoot at -2,0 & +2 EV, then that should help overcome the dynamic range issue. You will have to learn how to use a layer mask in PP, though (it's not that hard) in order to make an exposure blend, or even HDR. The exposure blends look more natural.

Thanks for the advice!

[windrider86]

Would really appreciate it if you posted your photo here for us to see!