Getting a totally washed out sky in your sunset photography just isn't what you want! Here is how to get those rich, intense colors you see the pros getting!
In today's landscape photography photo tip,
we will continue our discussion from yesterday on shooting better sunset photos.
To get the most color and drama in your shot, underexpose!
Actually today we have two sunset photo tips...
In yesterday's sunset photography, photo tips article we discussed how to meter the sunset so that you don't get a dark, muddy (or even completely black) sky.
We learned that the meter in our camera will see all the light from the sun and expose for that value while letting everything else in the scene go dark. To fix it, we learned to meter for the sky with the sun out of the frame - then recompose to include it.
In effect, this will increase the exposure value and more properly expose the sky.
For today's first sunset photo, photo tip, we are going to take a step backwards! Now that we have increased to exposure to get a "correct" reading in the sky, we have to step back and change our settings to slightly underexpose the sky. That's when you are going to get all of those colors to "POP!"
Slight underexposure will deepen and intensify the colors.
The problem is that if you overexpose the sky - or even if you have a "correct" exposure (I put "correct" in quote marks because artistically there really is no such thing) you will wash out all the stunning colors that drew you to the scene in the first place. On the other hand, if you underexpose by too much, it all starts to go black.
This is another area where shooting digital images is better than film. You can see what you are getting and make adjustments on the fly.
When we were shooting film, we had to guess what the best exposure was - and frequently we were wrong. Even worse, we didn't find out until the film was processed which could take several days - AND we had to pay $15 or $20 for the privilege of seeing bad or inadequate sunset photos!
With digital we can immediately see the results and tweak our settings until we get exactly what we want!
With this ability, there is absolutely no reason why YOU can't get sunset photos that will absolutely take your breath away.
The flip side to underexposing the sky in sunset photography is that the ground area is going to go dark. At sunset it is probably dark to begin with, and underexposing the image is going to further darken it - possibly (or even usually) making it go completely black with no detail.
That is a bad thing. Unless you are gong for a silhouette, you rarely if ever want areas of your photographs to be without detail. If you don't care, you are set to go!
Photo Tip # 2 is to add filters!
If you want to lighten the ground without lightening the sky, you would use a split neutral density filter.
This way you underexpose the sky with the filter, not the exposure setting.
Actually, the filter can be neutral or colored. When using a colored filter, you can add color to a sunset.
Here's a pro secret - many if not most of the beautiful colors you see in their sunsets have been added with a filter. Particularly in movies and on television. (Photo techniques don't change just because it's a movie set!)
The thing about being a professional is that you HAVE TO GET THE SHOT. If nature isn't providing the scene you need... YOU have to provide it.
Or, you can stack them and use a colored filter to add colors to the sky and then darken it with a split neutral density filter to rescue the ground
For sunsets, tobacco colored filters tend to be very popular. For sunrises, filters trend more towards pink.
So, to create that jaw dropping - contest winning - sunset you've been dreaming about... First, meter with the sun out of the frame to increase the exposure value. Then slightly underexpose the sky to intensify the colors. Finally, bring back the details in the ground and even add color to the sky if necessary with filters. Today's landscape photography photo tip is going to quickly separate you from the crowd. Try it!
