by Brad Mauer

Created on: April 16, 2009

Tips For Taking Great Sunset Photos

When the sun starts to go down it is a great opportunity to get those beautiful silhouetted photographs over the water with a beautiful reflection in the water. In order to get this great work of art you will need to scope out an area in advance. There is nothing wrong with the area around you, it just looks normal to you. People that don't live in the area do not see these images every day and will find more amazement in them than you think.

To set we will need to arrive at the fore mentioned area we scouted a few days before aproximatly a half hour early or more. Figure out the composition you want of the photograph, what will be in and what will not. Set the tripod up to compose your photograph in the way you desire. You may want to screw on your polarizing filter, this will bring out the color of the sky and give it a little more saturation. It is also good to go on a day right after or before a large storm. The reason for this is you get more dramatic sky photographs before and after a storm.

With everything set up now it is time for the show to begin. As soon as the sun begins to set I usually start to snap pictures. You want to get an exposure reading off of a light area in the sky away from the sun, do not take the exposure reading with the sun in the frame you will wash out everything else in the photograph. If using a digital camera with a large memory card start snapping pictures every few minutes as you notice the sky changing, this is going to happen very suddenly so be prepared. If you are using film or have limited space on your card pace yourself to take a photograph when you have noticed a dramatic change in the sky.

As the sun sets most people pack it up here, hold out it continues to get better. Just after the sun sets over the horizon you will get a very short period of time we like to call twilight. This is when the sun is set but there is just a little light left to leave the sky blue, very dark blue. You may get lucky and have a few stars in your photograph at this point. Either way give it a shot you may enjoy the pictures you get and find there are more beautiful photographs than just sunrise and sunset. Twilight photographs are the chose to make when you are taking skyline photos. You get beautiful colors in the sky and the building generally have there lights on. Remember when taking landscape photographs such as the before mentioned you want to use a large depth of field. You should be using a tripod because the shutter speeds on this will be way to slow for hand held. Since you have a tripod the shutter time doesn't matter slow it down and open up the aperture use the largest f number you can and get crisp clean focus.

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