Where is it best to meter for sunrise and sunsets?

Question

I can never get nice silhouettes and appropriate exposures for sunrise and sunset. How should I meter for this?

Asked by Noel M

Answer

Its near impossible to balance the foreground and the horizon/ambient when shooting into the sun without lighting modifiers, so you have to pick a target.

If your target is to expose the sunset correctly, then expose for the sky - a non-white, non sun patch close to your composition, and recompose using those settings.

If your target is to expose the foreground correctly, well, thats easy, expose the foreground as normal :)

If your target is to create a silhouette in the foreground, then you might try exposing for the sky, taking a test shot, and using your view/histogram controls to ensure you have a large chunk of black in the photo (tall peak on the left side). Alternatively, you could set your exposure points to center point, expose on the foreground silhouette, then close down the shutter until your light meter is buried, -2 or better.

Answered by reuscam

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How can a sunset photo have pink and purple colors?

Question

I was browsing, and found this gem, which has distinct hues of pink and purple. I am curious so as to how the photo has shades that it has. Was it edited later? Do such colors really occur while the sun sets?

Answer

From the looks of it there is also a bluish cast to the ground on the bottom of the photograph so I wouldn't be surprised if they used a blue graduated filter inserted so the darkest part of the filter was at the bottom of the frame. Likewise, a red graduated filter would also make the sunset more intense and could be inserted such that the deepest red is at the top of the frame.

Looking though the other photographs in their gallery I notice that the color schemes to keep appearing so it is unnatural that they are all naturally occurring sunsets and in one of the photographs he confirms that he uses Lee filters when he takes the photographs.

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How do you make the most stunning sunrise and sunset photos?

Question

I've been lucky on a few occasions, but I often struggle with capturing awesome sunsets. What can I do to remove the element of luck and get more consistent results?

Additionally, is it possible to tell if a sunset set is going to be particularly striking far enough in advance to plan to get to an awesome location in time?

Answer

I've done well with the exposure rules from "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson.

Basically, use manual exposure. You probably want everything in focus, so a high f/stop number (ie small aperture) will help you achieve that. That may mean you need a long-ish exposure, so a tripod would help (and will be essential if you want to use HDR techniques).

To set the exposure, choose spot metering mode, point the camera up at the sky, and set the aperture and time so that the sky is correctly exposed. Then recompose and take the photo. Review the picture and adjust the exposure if it is too dark or light for the effect you want. This photo was exposed for the sky:

Alternatively, if there is a lot of water in the picture you may want to expose for that. Water will be darker than the sky, even with the reflected sunlight. So do the same as above, but point the camera at the water to set the exposure. This photo was exposed for the water in the foreground:

Which you prefer is up to personal preference and the objects you have to work with in the composition. On the non-exposure parts, I've nothing to add to what the others answers say.

Edit: I've decided there is one more thing to say. The light can change very fast, so if it looks beautiful take a picture now. Then recompose and take another, or play around with your metering and take another. Or wait a bit and see how the light develops. But only after you've got at least one shot of it - the light can go from stunning to boring in 30 seconds or less sometimes, so it's better to end up with a shot of the beautiful light caught in an OK way than a technically perfect shot after the light has died.

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