Help my sunset

I shot this on the Coast. The city scape is Biloxi Ms. I tried every f-stop, iso and shutter speed to get it. Can anyone tell me what settings you would use to capture a sunset.

My settings change every time, as do the sunsets!

What you have isn't bad. The horizon is tilted, so fix that, add some more contrast, brighten the foreground if you shot RAW, and add a touch more saturation possibly.

Next time try shooting with the flash to illuminate the foreground better. It might just give you some usable image data to play with.

Thanks Mrgreen. I did not use my flash, but I will try that next time. I do shoot raw, so I will edit it there and then play with it to see what I can come up with. Thanks for the cc, its really helping me when people cc. I don't feel so lost.

[QUOTE=mama2-8;5918396]I shot this on the Coast. The city scape is Biloxi Ms. I tried every f-stop, iso and shutter speed to get it. Can anyone tell me what settings you would use to capture a sunset.


The problem with sunsets is that the level of contrast from the sky to the foreground is too high. To get the foreground exposed properly relative to the sun, you are going to have to use either HDR/exposure blending (a software based solution) or a split graduated neutral density (GND) filter in front of the lens (a hardware based solution).

With HDR/exposure blending, you take multiple exposures (atleast 2, but 3 or more can be used) of the scene at different exposure levels. With two exposures, you expose one shot for the sky and the second you expose for the foreground. With the sun in frame however, you probably need to have atleast one additional intermediate exposure. You then blend the shots in Photoshop or merge them into a HDR (high dynamic range) file and tonemap it using Photoshop or some other program like Photomatix.

Using the neutral density method, you use a filter holder to position a rectangular piece of glass or resin that is half clear and half gray (neutral density). You align the transition of the filter to the horizon with the gray part on top to hold back the strength of the sun.

There are three kinds of neutral density graduation: soft edge, hard edge and reverse. The soft edge kind goes from full density to clear very gradually, making the transition line virtually indistinguishable in the image. This is most useful when the transition from background to foreground is not a straight line.

When you do have such a straight line, it is better to use the hard edge kind. In this type, the filter transitions from neutral density to clear very quickly. It is most useful for seascapes and other horizon based shots such as canyons.

The last kind, a reverse neutral density filter, is a variation of a hard edge. It has a strong transition line, stronger than a hard edge, but then reduces in density as you go up. This is the one you want to use for sunsets. At sunset, the bright part of the sky is at the horizon where the filter's transition line will be, but this is also where the filter lessens in density. A reverse GND resolves this by having the full density where it is needed, at the transition.

The next point to consider in the filter is what strength of neutral density is needed. GND filters are generally available in 1-, 2- and 3-stop densities. With digital cameras, especially cropped DSLRs, you probably will want to use a 3-stop one for photos with the sun in frame, if not stronger (which can be done by using two filters instead of one, like a 3-stop and 1-stop together).

To see more about using graduated neutral density filters see these links

Wikipedia article on Graduated Neutral Density Filtering

Singh-Ray's page about Neutral Density Filters

Article on using Neutral Density Filters

Thanks for the detail explination Craig. I will look at the links you posted.

I think craig nailed it. Also, situations like this that have a straight horizon lend themselves very well to the graduated ND filter.

doidinho wrote in post #5919022
I think craig nailed it. Also, situations like this that have a straight horizon lend themselves very well to the graduated ND filter.

But with a hard edge, not soft.