Let's see some sunrise and sunset shots

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Garry
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Here are some late-evening shots taken on a recent walkabout in Brighton with my Canon 40D and 18-55mm lens. I'd love to see your twilight and sunset shots.

Stand on Stanchions
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Passacaglia
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Sunset Over Brighton
 
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Number 2 is a cracking shot :)
 
Just pulled up at the side of the road near to my house at the height of the Icelandic volcano ash cloud.
Not really a landscape togger but it looked good enough to make me pull over and take a few pics.

Taken looking across two mist filled valleys with a d90 and 300mm f4.


sunset012.jpg
 
I love 1,2 and 3 :) all awesome shots. Would you mind sharing settings and so on? Im currently learning so trying to pick up some useful info
 
I love 1,2 and 3 :) all awesome shots. Would you mind sharing settings and so on? Im currently learning so trying to pick up some useful info

If you click on any of the photos you'll land on the Flickr photo page. Then just click where it says "Canon 40D" at the top right of the page. I was just walking around with my 18-55mm lens and my 50mm f/1.8. For these I had on the 18-55 to get wide beach shots. I was shooting (as usual) in Av mode with my WB set to cloudy (for nice, warm shots), letting the camera choose the ISO and shutter speed. All I had to do was get the right exposure, zoom and frame, point and shoot. Nice and simple.

There is a 'trick' with this kind of silhouette shot that's well worth learning. And even though I'll explain it, you have to learn it by practice. And to use this 'trick' you need a camera with which you can lock the exposure. With my Canon 40D I aim the camera at whatever I'm using to set the exposure, hold the shutter down, then press the * button. On my Canon SX220 HS compact camera, I aim, hold the shutter down, then press upward on the control dial at the back. It's different for each camera and you'll have to check your manual.

To get a silhouetted sunset shot like this you have to trade off sky exposure with subject/background exposure. So what I do is point the camera at a bright part of the sky near the sun and then lock exposure. Then I frame my subject and click. If the result looks good on the LCD I'm done. If it doesn't I have to use my experience of how much leeway I've got through shooting RAW. I might take up to 2 more shots aiming the camera a little nearer the sun and a little further away. With the 3 shots above I got it right first time.

The idea is to expose for a bright enough part of the sky that the subject/background is silhouetted just enough but keeping just the right amount of detail. If you aim too close to the sun you'll get a great sky but lose all detail in the silhouetted parts; if you aim too far away you'll get quite a bit more detail in the subject/background but it might be too much, and you might get a blown sky into the bargain. You don't need to get it exactly right if you've got a good post-processing program that allows you to tweak light tones, mids, shadows, and darks separately, but with enough practice you'll get it right more often than not.

It's possible that someone more experienced than I am could expose for the sky and note the result, expose for the subject/background and note the result, then calculate the perfect manual exposure to get a good sky with a good, detailed subject/background. But I find it quicker just to do it my way.

When I got them home I loaded them into Lightroom and tweaked the white balance, contrast, and saturation, then added a little sharpening. Et voilá.
 
Some lovely images in this thread great to see here are a few from Antigua earlier this year.

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With the summer were having nice to remember.

Bill
 
Stunning shots :eek:
These are all bordering on stupidly good. I'll contribute in a few years of practice :(
 
Brilliant sunsets Glenn...reckon that lens flair can go though what do you think?

really nice shots.

Thanks Phil, would it surprise you to learn that the shot with the flare was taken with a 2MP Olympus C-2000z, over ten years ago?
 
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