sunset photography

collisster

collisster

collisster

Soldato
Joined
23 May 2006
Posts
2,590
Location
Blythe
I went out tonight to take some photos of the sunset. I'm not very pleased with the result as in all of the pics the foreground is all black, to try and put some detail in making it lighter the sunset is then blown out. is there a specific technique to taking sunset photographs?

thanks
 
Very basically, it sounds like you either need to invest in some graduated neutral density filters (they make the top half of the shot darker to balance sky and foreground exposure), or learn how to take separate exposures for sky/foreground and combine them using layers in Photoshop.
 
As mentioned above, you are trying to take photos where the dynamic range is too large for the sensor. The best way to deal with tis is to invest in a neutral density graduated filter - bit of glass or plastic with grey at the top half which fades to transparent. This makes the top half darker, lowering the dynamic range.
 
Not a huge fan of HDR - it ruins too many good photos. Learn to use exposure bracketing and then how to use a tool like GIMP or Photoshop to combine the best elements into your desired image. With HDR you lose sharpness and clarity both things that I feel make for great images when preserved.
 
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I like the street lamp one as I think this effect works with it but otherwise I'm not too sure on the others
 
Junk the street lamp one - the last two are excellent and you have nothing to complain about (photoshop might improve it, but they're really good already). The first two could use a crop to balance the silhoutte with the sky
 
thats the one I liked haha ah well looking at it more i think it gets in the way too much + the hedge around it is distracting.
thanks for the comments though. what could be done in PS?


collisster
 
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