Help me with sunsets

[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

[Rolling Stone]

FYI:You may get a better response posting this in the Landscape Critique thread.

[FoG]

As the first answerer suggests Critique may help more for what you are looking for

... as for the second and third shots are lovely but I think in my limited knowledge maybe a longer exposure and filter may have helped with the foreground ... have to say nice shots though

[angeleyes216]

i really like the last 2...i think the top one is a slight bit dark...i love the lights reflections in the last one...your on the right track... nice scenery.

[Nicole]

Because it's a more general landscape technique question, I've moved it over to, well, Landscape Techniques.

IMHO, I think that part of getting good foregrounds to sunrise / sunset shots is getting closer. Obviously that's not going to work in this case because they're trees so if you get closer they'll obscure the sunset. I also like interesting shapes in the foreground if they're going to be silhouetted.

In this case, I feel that the trees along the bottom are competing with the nicely lit buildings. I actually feel that the bottom shot would've worked better without the trees but from lower so you still get the water and the sky. That's just my 2 cents though.

[fletch]

Look at your horizons. Does something look wrong? It does to me, its the first thing I see.

[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. There are several sunset shots on my flickr account if you want to see an example.

[navcom]

Your concerns about the dark foreground boils down to contrast. The human eye can see a much wider range of lights and darks than your camera can. Understanding this limitation is the first step in getting the best sunset/sunrise photos.

If you meter for the sun, the foreground will be dark. If you meter for the foreground, the sun will be overexposed. This is just a fact, but there are a couple of things you can do.

First, you can use a graduated neutral density filter. It's a filter that is just glass on half of it and is darker over the other half. This is kind of like putting sunglasses on only a portion of your lens...in the case of a sunrise/sunset, you would put it over the bright part where the sun is. This allows the exposure to be set slower, bringing out the detail in the foreground without blowing out the sun and sky. In effect, it decreases the intensity of the sun and sky. Also, with HDR it's easy to over-do the effect and end up with "cartoonish" and un-natural looking images. If you use this, be subtle to keep it natural looking.

A second way is to use HDR techniques. This involves taking several pictures at different exposures and blending them together using Photoshop or other post-processing program. You would take one with the sun exposed properly, take one with the foreground exposed properly, and a third somewhere inbetween (or several inbetween). To do this, you need a tripod and the camera cannot move between shots or you will ruin the end results.

A third option is to do nothing. Quite honestly, a dark foreground, when composed in the proper place in an image, can add dramatic effect and emphasize the colors of the sky and sun. In the case of your pictures, I think you've done nicely. But Fletch is right...a couple of them are a bit crooked as far as the horizon is concerned. Exposure-wise, not bad!

[claudvic]

Originally Posted by navcom

Your concerns about the dark foreground boils down to contrast. The human eye can see a much wider range of lights and darks than your camera can. Understanding this limitation is the first step in getting the best sunset/sunrise photos.

If you meter for the sun, the foreground will be dark. If you meter for the foreground, the sun will be overexposed. This is just a fact, but there are a couple of things you can do.

First, you can use a graduated neutral density filter. It's a filter that is just glass on half of it and is darker over the other half. This is kind of like putting sunglasses on only a portion of your lens...in the case of a sunrise/sunset, you would put it over the bright part where the sun is. This allows the exposure to be set slower, bringing out the detail in the foreground without blowing out the sun and sky. In effect, it decreases the intensity of the sun and sky. Also, with HDR it's easy to over-do the effect and end up with "cartoonish" and un-natural looking images. If you use this, be subtle to keep it natural looking.

A second way is to use HDR techniques. This involves taking several pictures at different exposures and blending them together using Photoshop or other post-processing program. You would take one with the sun exposed properly, take one with the foreground exposed properly, and a third somewhere inbetween (or several inbetween). To do this, you need a tripod and the camera cannot move between shots or you will ruin the end results.

A third option is to do nothing. Quite honestly, a dark foreground, when composed in the proper place in an image, can add dramatic effect and emphasize the colors of the sky and sun. In the case of your pictures, I think you've done nicely. But Fletch is right...a couple of them are a bit crooked as far as the horizon is concerned. Exposure-wise, not bad!

Thnk you for such detailed answer.
Yes I can see now that pics 2 and 3 are not straight at the horizon.
I am more concerned on picture 1
So do you mean that altough the foregroung is dark the picture is ok?
My problem was that when I was trying to shoot in manual mode and look at my meter
reading at 0 I was getting an overexposed shot.

[navcom]

Originally Posted by claudvic

Thnk you for such detailed answer.
Yes I can see now that pics 2 and 3 are not straight at the horizon.
I am more concerned on picture 1
So do you mean that altough the foregroung is dark the picture is ok?
My problem was that when I was trying to shoot in manual mode and look at my meter
reading at 0 I was getting an overexposed shot.

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.