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Sunsets are one of the most amazing and beautiful things on earth. The sky suddenly lights up into a fiery red, pink, and orange glow, then fades into a deep blue color and on to darkness. No two sunsets are ever alike, some are magnificent, and others are less spectacular. It is no wonder people love to take pictures of those amazing sunsets. Here are some quick tips to help you capture those once in a lifetime sunset photos. Underexpose your photo. Your camera will want to have a perfectly lit exposure when you are shooting sunsets, But if you let the camera make all the decisions, you will end up with a pale washed out photo with none of the colors you see with your eye. Instead, underexpose the photo 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop and all of those brilliant colors will be seen in your photo. Find an interesting foreground. It can be a tree, a rock, a person, A river, just about anything. This will help create depth in your photo and make it that much more interesting and stand out from the crowd. This may include getting down low to the ground. Most photos are taken about 5 feet off the ground, why not try to be different. Arrive early. It is best to arrive at your location 30 minutes before sunset, and be prepared to stay 30 minutes after sunset. You will secure your spot, and most of the other people will clear out once the sun dips below the horizon. More often then not, the best colors happen after the sun sets. Nothing is worse than frantically scrambling to find that perfect spot to shoot the sunset all while the sun is setting. If possible, scout out your location earlier in the day, or days earlier so you can just show up and shoot. Try a different focal length. When most people are photographing the sky, they put on the widest lens they have and photograph the entire sky. The problem with wide angle lenses, they make everything in the distance look tiny. next time you are shooting a sunset, try a mid range or telephoto zoom lens. The sun and the colors will fill the frame creating an even more amazing photograph. Use your histogram. The bright sunlight may play tricks on your eyes and the LCD will look either darker or lighter than the final image. With the histogram, you will be able to see if you are blowing out the highlights or losing details in the shadows. Keep the horizon level. The real horizon is perfectly level, and so should be the horizon in your photo. You can use a bubble level that fits into the hotshot on your camera, or some cameras have an electric level built in. Do not have the horizon line go directly through the center of your frame. Use the Rule of Thirds. It is more pleasing to the eye. Turn around and look to see what is happening behind you. That amazing sunset you have been shooting might be lighting up that mountain in the distance. Or reflecting off the windows on a building. As a photographer, it is our duty to see amazing photos where most people wouldn’t. Everybody will see that pretty sunset, but nobody will think twice about what is happening behind them. Use a Smartphone App to help you choose the right location, and to know what time the sun is setting/rising, My favorite tool is the The Photographers Ephemeris http://photoephemeris.com/ It is free for the desktop, but there is also an iPhone and Android version. Use a Graduated Neutral Density filter to darken the sky, but still allow light from the foreground to shine through. This will allow you to get the vivid colors in the sky while not losing details in a dark foreground. When shooting a portrait at sunset, make sure you use a flash or reflector to illuminate the persons face. Otherwise you will just end up with a silhouette of the person and no details in their face. Remember to set the camera down for a moment and just enjoy the beauty unfolding before your eyes. Don't just think about camera settings and composition, be in the moment. Not all sunsets are created equal. Sometimes you will witness the most amazing sunset you have ever seen. While other times the sky will just fade to darkness without much excitement. No two are ever the same, and that just makes them that much more special.

Photo Lowdown

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