Beginner Sunsets

Hippofit

Hippofit

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19
Name
Steve
Edit My Images
Yes
Mmmm, well tried my hand at a sunset today, not sure if I understand fully but it was rather cold and misty and not sure if this affected me. I took a load of pics and played with lots of settings to see how it affects the pics, I've attached one for you guys to give some feedback. I know I'm new and these look like snaps to you but trying to avoid using auto settings and get really comfy with the manual settings.
f16
1/50
iso 100


I await your critic!!! :)
 

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3 questions:

Why that sunset, is it how it looked to you?

Why f16?

Why 1/50?

The reason I ask:

If shooting a sunset, I'd go for a more dramatic one, pink and purple etc. I'd also look for some foreground / silhouette interest, a picture of a sky will get some FB likes, but isn't a full on photograph IMHO.

I only ever shoot f16 when I'm trying to get a low shutter speed, f8 will almost always get you enough DoF for most things, and with no foreground interest here, this could have been shot wide open. As a compromise you might have chosen the sweet spot of your lens.

Again 1/50 is low for a hand held shot, I'd only go that low when absolutely necessary, there was enough light for f8 at 1/200 for exactly the same exposure.
 
Thanks Phil, as said very new to this and getting the hang of things, It was fairly close to how it looked at the time and thanks for the info on foreground interest. I only shot at those settings as it seemed to work and once again thanks will take on board and hopefully get better.
 
Phil V said:
3 questions:

Why that sunset, is it how it looked to you?

Why f16?

Why 1/50?

The reason I ask:

If shooting a sunset, I'd go for a more dramatic one, pink and purple etc. I'd also look for some foreground / silhouette interest, a picture of a sky will get some FB likes, but isn't a full on photograph IMHO.

I only ever shoot f16 when I'm trying to get a low shutter speed, f8 will almost always get you enough DoF for most things, and with no foreground interest here, this could have been shot wide open. As a compromise you might have chosen the sweet spot of your lens.

Again 1/50 is low for a hand held shot, I'd only go that low when absolutely necessary, there was enough light for f8 at 1/200 for exactly the same exposure.
Click to expand...

Good advice from Phil (y)

One of the problems with landscape photography is the big difference in brightness between the sky and the land. The eye is very accommodating and there was probably some visible detail in the foreground at the time, but the camera records it as it is without the very sophisticated mental processing that goes on in our brains. There are ways to get around that, like graduated neutral density filters or a technique known as HDR (google) but that's another rung up the ladder of learning.

The other thing about using high f/numbers like f/16 is they will show up any dust marks on the sensor - those darker marks in the sky. And sharpness is reduced too. As Phil says, there's rarely any need to go much above f/8 unless you want the correspondingly longer shutter speed that usually goes with those settings. You need to understand the Exposure Triangle of shutter speed, lens aperture and ISO. It's fundamental stuff that will stand you in good stead with every picture you take - this is a good tutorial by our Pookeyhead :) https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...ure-theory-but-were-afraid-to-ask-101.440126/
 
Last edited:
cheers Hoppy, yep think I need to get my head around that triangle so more reading, did enjoy myself and thanks for the feedback will be enjoying this hobby I think
 
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