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 best exposure is the one that you
like the most.
In many sunset situations (particularly where you have a foreground where you can to maintain some detail), 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 heighten 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 by adding exposure). 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 and changed the look of the photos.
By metering from the brighter areas of sky, I caused the overall sunset to be underexposed. The darker clouds have a more ominous appearance, I think, and makes the sun's rays pop out even more. Photographed over Long Island Sound using a Nikon D90.
Entire Site Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Wignall
An Ambitious Dogs Production In Association with Boo Boo & Mama Cat Films Please also visit my Photo Tip of the Day blog.
