Need help with sunset photos please

B

brewers_fan

Suspended / Banned
Messages
62
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi Everyone,

First post on here I have always enjoyed taking photos but want to start improving my skills now.

I would like to know why a lot of my sunset shots don't seem sharp at all, I don't have this problem when photoing anything else but for some reason it happens a lot with sunset shots.

The only sensible things I can think could be the problem is the sun is so bright pointing the camera or focusing on the sun is upsetting the camera / autofocus - I use a Nikon D40x btw. Or do I need to wait until the sun is less high and bright in the sky. I have taken a few decent sunsets but most come out like this and I'm unsure why.



 
Turn your autofocus off. Focus on infinity.
 
When ever I shoot sunsets I use nd filters as I include the foreground also. Is say one reason will be where your focus point is in the shots and due to the distance from youself to the subject your going to suffer from haze which cant be helped.what aparture do you shoot? For landscapes I generally shoot between f11 and f16 giving greater DOF
 
Thanks for the replys,

Will have a go at using manual rather than auto foucs,

Also both of these were taken at F5.6 had camera in shutter priority mode, will try in manual exposer with a bigger (is that the correct term ?) f number to give more depth.
 
F/5.6 would be one of the reasons, treat it like a landscape and in this case F/8 or higher will help things along and will define the different colours etc :) was this **** handheld at all?
 
Don't forget that if you choose a higher f stop (e.g. f11) your shutter speed will reduce. So if you don't have a tripod, use a bean bag or find a flat surface to rest the camera on - like a fence post. Hand held will almost certainly result in a blurry pic.
 
do u mean the sun is not sharp?
where was your focus point at? cloud or sun?
i had experienced photographing the sun once and it isn't sharp too,i guess because of the heat/smoke surrounding it.
allow me to share one of my photos here.
shooting at 1000mm F16 with manual focus in Manual mode,non-crop.

9615738622_22e6566da9_c.jpg
[/url] IMG_4623-2 by MEphotog, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
<Grandmother to suck eggs mode>
You want to be really careful about looking through your viewfinder at the sun. Best bet, don't. Stick the camera on a tripod and use live view.
 
Last edited:
I usually focus on the horizon and recompose for sunrises/sets. I generally dial in a stop or 2 of underexposure too to bring out the colours a bit more. Be wary of both looking at the Sun through the 'finder and of using live view - you can fry your eyeballs (well, retinas) or sensors.

The Sun can look soft since at Sunset/rise you're shooting through a lot of atmosphere and close to the horizon where heat haze causes all sorts of weird effects!
 
Saw this the other day and it's interesting how the sun went a funny shape ( stopped down the sun took on the shape of the aperture blades)
http://www.andrewsgibson.com/blog/2010/12/behind-the-photo-telephoto-sunset/#more-1830

Personally for sunsets I usually try and find an interesting foreground (cityscape, country view, coast (bridges, lighthouses, piers all add interest), then use an ND grad to try and get detail in the foreground and sky. That said shots just of the setting sun and colours in the sky (as above) can be good too.
 
The inevitable problem is that either the foreground becomes a silhouette due to being underexposed or the sky is blown out (overexposed) if you expose for the foreground. So you either have to use an ND grad filter to try and 'balance' the exposure or take 2 or more exposures (eg: one for the sky one for the foreground) and blend them with something like the Enfuse plugin or in Photoshop.

The alternative is to deliberately go for the silhouette effect - in which case you need to find something which makes an interesting silhouette shape - palm trees, jagged mountain tops, buildings/structures with a nice shape (eg: a pier, church steeples), a boat/boat, bare trees in winter, plants/flowers - even blades of grass can work well, birds, animals, people etc. I appreciate that palm trees and jagged mountain tops may be a bit hard to find close to home so perhaps try people - either candid or posed. A couple holding hands can work well for example, or a lone figure on a hill...

Some examples on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=silhouette+sunset
 
Last edited:
Applemint, Many thanks for the advice in your post all stuff I will look to follow over the coming weeks :)

I can see where your coming from to be honest, after looking at the flickr link you posted I can see that having a decent foreground image is important when going for a silhouette effect like I wanted with the photo I posted last week but having a more honest with myself look at it I can I've just ended up with a black foreground - nothing really worth looking at.


Just wondering what you think of these shots, the trees were about the only thing I could find to point the camera at at the time - hopefully heading out and about will give me something better to take shots off soon.



 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top