Help me with sunsets

[claudvic]

Originally Posted by navcom

Absolutely. A dark foreground can add to the "feel" of the photograph. It also makes the image more calming and less cluttered. The best photographs are those where the object of interest is easily identified and the other elements in the photo push your attention to this object. In order to do this, we need to "unclutter" the image...that is, remove everything that doesn't draw your attention to the object of interest or isn't needed to balance the image. A dark foreground pushes your attention to the sun and the colored sky. If the foreground was bright with all it's details visible just like during the day, the image would not be as dramatic and the sky would just blend into the image and their would be competition between the foreground and the sun for the object of interest.

In your images, the center of interest is the calming colors/sunset. The buildings that are visible in the foreground support those colors, providing balance. The darkness pushes your attention to those details.

Well you made me happier now buddy.
Thanks so much for such a detailed explenation.
If I have time I will try some more tonite and post again

Thanks again

[Paul Duncanson]

Originally Posted by Trader

I don't have any knowledge about the Coolpix camera's from Nikon but I know I can not get real good sunsets from my Nikon D300 unless I go into Kelvin setting for white balance and I seem to get the best color from the range of 5,500 to 7,400.

Do you know what is right in the middle of that Kelvin range? Daylight. Ordinary, middle of the day style daylight.

A camera doesn't know a sunset when it sees one. The warm red-orange glow of a really nice sunset reminds most cameras of the colour of an incandescent light. On an auto white balance setting the camera assumes a scene tinted that strongly orange is just too orange for anyone to actually want and tries to correct for that. So you have to tell it not to.

You want the light in a sunset shot to appear more orange than daylight. Set your white balance to daylight and the camera knows to assume that it is looking at a scene lit by daylight and any colour cast that seems to be there is supposed to be there.

You figured out the fix by yourself (though switching the white balance to the daylight setting would be quicker). Yay for experimenting! Everyone should do that more. Now you know why it works.

[EdHamlin]

Originally Posted by claudvic

I have taken some sunsets pics and I wanted some help.
What have I done wrong here and what could have I done better to
obtain better foregroung in the pics?
Or is it good?
I shot these in dusk/dawn scene mode
Any comments will be much helpful

I have shot a lot of sunrise/sunsets throughout my life, each sunset is so different, that since I am completely digital now, it is nice to be able to shoot in a completely manual mode where I complete control with immediate reviewable results where I can adjust ISO albeit that I typically shoot ISO100. I will change shutter speed and apeture along with wb to obtain the effect i desire,. I really do want to capture exacly what I see. I have a few on my website you can look at along with a post for the weekly assignment. IMHO i think that it is important to know you camera completely so when you go to shoot a sunset or a sunrise you have no fear of you creativity being stifled.
Do not be afraid to use a neutral desity or even a circular polorsizing filter to bring out the contrast and also control the harsh light from the sun. I will be updating my website with a few shots sunrise from the Catalina Mountains in Tucson AZ. One last thing this is digital versus film, I have actually found it harder to shoot a great sunrise/sunset in digital that film. Take a look at Ansel Adams zone system for exsposures, You can find it in his book the Negative, it is very usful to really understand the values of light.

Dont be affraid to shoot directly at the sun, however becareful when viewing the sun to compose your shot. I look away trying to use my perifial vision to place the sun in the frame.

Most of all Have Fun!

[kencaleno]

You should be metering the sky to the side, or above the sun. Ken