Sunset Shots

dentonkarl

dentonkarl

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I am going camping in the Lakes next week. Hoping to get some sunset shots on a night.

I don't have any ND Grad filters.
At my disposal I have Nikon D90, 12-24, 18-105, 70-300. Also got circular polarising, ND8 and 10 stopper. Oh and a tripod !

What is best technique - exposure times, filters etc to capture the nice sky

Thanks
 
You'll probably have to bracket your shots and then combine in Photoshop, otherwise you'll struggle to get both the sky andf the foreground correctly exposed.

Take 1 shot exposed for the foreground and one of the sky and combine should do the trick.
Polariser wont do much if you are facing the sun, but will be usefull if you want some lake shots when the sun is at a 90 degree angle to you.
The 10 stopper should get some good shots, but again, you'll need to balance out the sky and foreground. Most people use a hard grad combined with the 10 stop to bring the sky exposure down.

Exposure time depends entirely on the subject and the light. Put into spot meter and face the camera down to the foreground, make sure no sky is in shot. Note the exposure time, Then do the same but for the sky. Recompose the shot and take the exposure with the sky settings dialed in and then again with the foreground settings dialed in.
 
TCR4x4 said:
Most people use a hard grad combined with the 10 stop to bring the sky exposure down.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why most people use a 10-stop ND for sunsets? I must admit it's not something I would think of doing and I've never heard of anybody else doing. Just a simple NDG would suffice, would it not?
 
Bracketing exposures and combining them with software could be useful.

This site http://photoephemeris.com/ is good for planning sunset (and sunrise) shots. Whatever is the time of the sunset or sunrise, get there about 45 mins before it happens.

Dave
 
hollis_f said:
I'm not sure why most people use a 10-stop ND for sunsets? I must admit it's not something I would think of doing and I've never heard of anybody else doing. Just a simple NDG would suffice, would it not?
Click to expand...

I didn't say you had to use the 10 stop for sunsets. I said when people use the 10 stop, they also sometimes use an ND grad.
I have used a 10 stop for sunsets however and it worked fine.

If you want to get really fussy you should actually use a reverse ND grad for sunsets, but not many people are that anal.
 
Depends what's in the foreground. Sometimes I use a flash to highlight the foreground object, whilst exposing for the sunset.
 
hollis_f said:
Not explicitly, but it was implied. And I though some clarification would help avoid confusion.
Click to expand...

So the previous and following paragraph explaining exactly what to do without filters wasn't enough clarification that you don't have to use the 10 stop??
 
If you wanted to highlight rapid cloud movement during a sunset you would use a 10 stopper to increase the exposure length
 
Definitely get a grad filter. I got a square Cokin one in Jessops for £25 that was big enough for my 77mm lens. Don't need a holder, esp if you are using a tripod. Well worth it.
 
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