How to properly photograph the sunset

How to properly photograph the sunset

The landscape, especially the sunset, is one of those stories from which many photographers made and made their first steps in photography. In principle, it is not difficult to explain this – nature draws a beautiful picture, and the photographer's task – is just to press the button, and the photo, it seems, should be interesting automatically. What is the difficulty of shooting it sunset?

Sunset equipment
The first difficulty is, foremost, that sunset requires an excellent dynamic range at your camera. It is necessary to work both light sky and dark ground. Unfortunately, this can boast only mirror cameras and the latest models of mirrorless system cameras, and even that is not all. But even on a full-length apparatus (it is believed that they have a maximum dynamic range), it is complicated to achieve simultaneous quality development of the sky and the ground when shooting the sunset.
During the shooting of the sunset very often occurs such a phenomenon as the flow of charge from "illuminated" pixels to neighboring. The result is the "growth" of the sun in size and the appearance of a colored edge around it. This phenomenon is called Bluming.

Camera setup when shooting sunset

In principle, the general principles of exposition do not differ from the usual in landscape shooting: in what mode to photograph, how to put the exposure, the diaphragm, and the sensitivity of ISO when shooting a sunset – quite a frequent question asked by novice photo amateurs. I will try to answer them.
Photograph the sunset better in iris priority mode (AV, A). There are several reasons. The most important thing – each lens has a specific range of diaphragm values on which it gives the best picture quality; as a rule, it is f/5.6-11.

Measurement of the exposition

The thing is that we have to shoot the sunset against the sun. As a result, the built-in exhibitor camera can let you down. The secret is to avoid directing the camera to the sun and taking the exposure readings slightly above the solar disk. Direct the camera lens to this point (just ensure you can't see the sun in the viewfinder) and press the shutter release button by half. As a result, the camera will choose the ideal sunset setting for the exposure and diaphragm.

Photo Processing

If you have to photograph the sunset, then be prepared that the photos taken will require additional processing. After all, it is not always possible to provide ideal shooting conditions and choose the proper settings for the camera. It is often necessary to adjust the images to improve their quality.

But with the rest of the subtleties, you will deal with, already practicing in the shooting. If you want to learn how to photograph the sunset, be bold and use various camera settings, and choose non-standard frame layouts and focal distances. Thus, to photograph the sunset correctly, more than knowledge of the basic rules of landscape photography is needed, and the ability to experiment and obey the barely noticeable changes in nature is necessary. This is the main guarantee of successful photos and a good mood from work.