Give Your Sunsets a Great Foreground

It's easy to look at a pretty sunset or sunrise and think that nature will do all of the work for you when it comes to photographing it. With all that color and drama, what's not to like? But you can improve any sunset/sunrise by simply finding a good foreground to place in front of it. Because you want the colors and cloud patterns (or sky reflections, if you're near the water) to dominate the shot, you want your foreground subject to be simple, yet interesting. Also, because it's likely that your foreground will end up entirely in silhouette, you also want a subject that's bold enough to be reduced to lines and shapes and still add interest to the photograph.

I took this shot of the rigging in a commercial fishing boat in Galilee, Rhode Island and I really like the way the complex web of stays and ropes creates such interesting patterns. It took me a while to find the shot though--even though I had been scouting around the harbor an hour or so before sunset. I was really hoping to get a shot of a boat pulling into or out of the harbor, but all the boats were tied up for the night. After walking around the marina in a slight state of panic for what seemed like an eternity (it was probably only about 10 minutes), afraid that I might miss this great sunset and not get a good shot, I looked up into the rigging of this boat and knew it would make a great shot. I planted my tripod on the dock and fired off a few dozen shots as the sky grew more intense and then started to fade, shifting my position slightly after each few frames.

Scouting ahead of time is the real key to finding a good sunset foreground. I've always found it's better to sacrifice an hour of late-afternoon shooting to do more scouting if I think there's going to be a great sunset, because I know that the combination of an interesting foreground and a great sunset make really pretty photos. Better yet, scout earlier in the day, at midday perhaps, and just be sure you get back to your sunset location in time to catch the sky show.

Expose Sunsets for Maximum Drama

One of the things that I like about shooting sunsets (and I shoot a lot of them) is that you can tweak the drama scale just by changing the exposure a few stops. And because there is no right or wrong exposure for sunsets (or sunrises if you're one of those nutty morning people), you have a real wide latitude of what constitutes a "correct" exposure. In fact, with sunsets, the only perfect exposure is the one that you like the most.

Most of the time, the safest way to get an technically acceptable sunset exposure (one where you can see some foreground detail and also get good color in the sky) is to meter without the sun in the frame. Just point the lens away from the sun itself, use your camera's exposure-lock feature to hold that exposure and then refocus. You might find though that this somewhat middle-of-the-road safe exposure is too bland for your tastes. One way that you can intensify the drama is by taking your exposure reading from a brighter area of the sky; again you still don't want the sun itself, but if you expose for a brighter area, you'll get darker, more saturated colors.

In this shot, for example, I did take some shots with the lens pointing at the darker clouds in the upper right, but the sky was too washed out (because I was metering a dark area the camera tried to expose for a darker subject). But then I took some frames, including this one, where I metered for that bright area along the horizon. These exposures were about two-and-a-half stops less than the ones where I metered with the sky and it really enhanced the drama.

Tomorrow: Same sunset shot during the afterglow--it will blow you away.

Follow the Clouds to the Sunset

Over the years I think that I've developed a nose for great sunsets (I can also smell a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie a block away) and whenever I think one is about to happen, I make tracks for the beach. The best sign I have that a great sunset is on its way is a really interesting or intense cloud formation. I shot these clouds a few days after Halloween and the skies had been pretty much overcast all day. Toward the end of the day though I was taking a walk by the local seawall and noticed the cloud cover was starting to break up into interesting shapes. I particularly liked the dark bluish clouds mixing in with the lighter clouds. Often this is the perfect combination for a dynamite sunset, so I cut the walk short and drove over to a beach that has a better western view.

I got to the beach about a half hour before the sun hit the horizon and got to watch as these amazing clouds morphed from one shape to another and shifted from this white/blue combination to a more yellow/gold and then finally, as the sun hit the horizon, a beautiful crimson sunset spread across the sky. The sunset was so spectacular that a steady stream of people were hopping out of their cars with their cell phone cameras to photograph it. In the next tip I'll show you what the sunset looked like...it was quite amazing.

Today's advice is: when you see great clouds, expect a great sunset.

Underexpose Sunsets for Drama

In the last posting I talked about how I took a sunset shot and turned into into a moonlight effect using the hue slider. Here is the original sunset with almost nothing done to it in Photoshop (just a very slight warming). The reason the sky looks so dramatic is that I took a reading from the bright area of sky (where the sun was poking through a bit at the bottom) and then used that exposure. Normally I wouldn't include such a bright area when metering because it would underexpose the scene too much, but that's just what I wanted to happen in this case. By making the clouds and sky darker, the rays of sunlight at the bottom show up better.

You have a lot of leeway when it comes to exposing sunset shots, it's almost hard to make a bad exposure. And you can always fix or exaggerate the exposure later in editing. The more important thing to me is just being at the beach when the sunset starts to flare up--which is why when time allows, I take a cup of tea and drive to the beach at the end of the day! It's good for the soul and good for your photo collection.

Turn a Sunset into a Moonlit Night

A few postings ago (the peacock shot) I talked about using the hue and saturation tool to create striking abstract colors. Last night I was trying to keep myself awake at the computer (that happens a lot at the end of a book project) and I started playing with a sunset image that I shot in Connecticut over Long Island Sound. I decided to see how the scene would look as a moonlit night and so I slid the hue slider all the way to the right which shifts the hues to blue. That's all I did to turn the sunset into a moonscape. I had already made some very minor corrections to brightness in Photoshop, but to create the moonlight look, it just took one quick push of the hue slider. Try it sometime with a sunset if you have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (and probably any other editing program). I don't think it will fool too many photographers into thinking it was really shot by moonlight, but it still looks kind of cool. I'll post the sunset next so you can see what the original looked like.

By the way, the new book I'm writing is almost done and it's on how to win photo contests, so stay tuned and I'll tell you more about it. I'm hoping it will hit the bookstores by September. It's being published by Lark Books.

Time Sunsets Carefully

When it comes to creating a really great sunset photo, timing is everything. While sunsets are always pretty to watch and photograph, often being really careful with your timing will turn a good photograph into a really nice one. I prefer to shoot the sun just a few seconds before it hits the horizon because there is this added element of the sun about to disappear. So, while I will usually shoot the sunset once it begins to color the sky, I reserve a few frames for the moment when the sun is about to hit, or is just hitting, the horizon.

The funny thing is that the closer the sun gets to the horizon, the faster it appears to be setting--like all of a sudden it's in a hurry to hide. It's really important then to be sure you and your camera are ready for those last few seconds. Also, sometimes there are other objects in your composition that you have to time along with the sun. In this shot of a sailboat moving past the sunset, I wanted the sun at the horizon but, of course, wanted to catch the boat in the frame too. I kept hoping the boat would slow down because it was moving pretty quickly and the sun wasn't yet in position! Fortunately I got off this one frame with both exactly where I wanted them. If that boat had been moving a tiny bit faster though, it would have left the frame too soon.

By the way, I also look for what artists and photographers call "points of tension" in situations like this. The little gap between the hill and the horizon is a point of tension because the mind knows that something is about to happen there, even though this is just a still photo. The gap between the bow of the boat and the edge of the frame is a larger, more subtle point of tension.

Emphasize the Sky with a Low Horizon

A few days ago I talked about placing the horizon high in the frame to emphasize foregrounds and make your main subject seem farther away. Before I get away from that concept, I wanted to show you how the balance of an image changes when you place the horizon extremely low in the frame.

With the horizon low you give emphasis to the sky or whatever else dominates the upper portion of your composition. I'll often do this with sunsets, for example, because the sky is generally the most colorful and interesting part of the scenes. But there are other times when I'll use a low horizon: if I'm photographing a lone tree on a hillside, for example, I'll keep the horizon low because I want to dramatize the isolation of the tree and it's small size compared to the sky or the hillside.

Horizon placement usually becomes instinctive after a while and I don't really think about it beforehand that much, but often I will shoot scenes both ways and then compare them later. It's free anyway, so why not make the extra effort. The one place most books will tell you not to place a horizon is directly through the horizontal center of the frame--and usually that's good advice--but rules are meant to be broken and sometimes it leads to startling visual discoveries. More about this in the days to come.