Sunsets

[guymclaren]

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3


How could I improve these shots

[guymclaren]

Re: Sunsets

PS don't tell me to move clouds, That kind of power I don't have.

[Ian]

Re: Sunsets

Hello Guy,

The first two have about the correct exposure to get nice colours, but they are not focussed correctly. It might be a good idea to set the lens to infinity, or, if you don't have a distance scale on your lens, focus on a distant object and then switch to manual focus without touching the focus ring on the lens.

The third is exposed for the rather uninteresting foreground, so the potentially intreresting colour and the tone of the sky is washed out. Best try a few shots with the exposure compensation set to minus values in order to experiment with exposure.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Sunsets

How could I improve these shots

Hi Guy, part of the attraction of sunrise/sunset shots are the beautiful warm and often intense colours that can be created. You have certainly got some intense colour here esp. in the first two. You have captured a complete circle for the sun, which is always nice, but perhaps this is at the expense of having to under expose, I think in your case it may be by increasing the shutterspeed.

I had a look at the exif data for the first shot and I notice you used iso 400 and 2000/sec @ f4.5. Ian mentioned about focus, he is right, but I wonder if an increased depth of field by increasing the aperture would have helped a bit.

If I'm honest my take on this genre of shot is that you should make the light work for you. Either you have some foreground interest that is lit by the glow and warmth of the sun, or if you can't then use the sky itself. If the sky is a bit boring and you can't get much of interest in the foreground, you simply don't get a decent shot, and you end up with a big orange ball and a red sky.

If you look at my Sunrise/Sunset gallery there are some shots taken at Dawn, and you will be able to see what I mean. I have managed to use both techniques. However, exposure is key and you may have to underexpose to get the sun and sky looking OK, then try lifting the foreground detail in the software. These things take some work to get them right very often and you can't just expect to take a shot and it be right from the start. The camera sees things differently to your eye

[guymclaren]

Re: Sunsets

not sure whether to open a new thread or add this here? Is this an improvement or how would you do this one?

[Autumn]

Re: Sunsets

Hi Guy

There are some lovely sunsets there and I will leave it to the more experienced photographers to offer their critique. However, there is one thing that I have to say detracts from the pics and that is the watermark going across. It is so distracting and I tend to look at that rather than the picture as a whole. If I hold my hand in front of the watermark, the image presents totally differently.

I love sunsets, particularly SA one's, but wonder if you could reduce the font, so that members can critically view your beautiful sunsets.

[Autumn]

Re: Sunsets

not sure whether to open a new thread or add this here? Is this an improvement or how would you do this one?

Just "Wow" but reduce the size of the text.

[vlarcombe]

Re: Sunsets

Hi Guy,

I have to agree with Ian. The first thing that struck me with the top two pictures was that the silhouette of the skyline was out of focus. This third picture is rather dominated by the foreground which lessens the impact of the sky. I think the 4th picture (posted on it's own) is the best but again the tree seems rather soft and the composition rather static.

I also agree with Stephens comments regarding foreground interest, one possibility here is to blend multiple exposures but this really requires a tripod to get good registration.

Vernon