Sunset Photography – Perfect Exposures Every Time
Sunset Photography – Perfect Exposures Every Time
Sunset Photography is hard to get right. You see a fantastic orange sunset, you take the picture and the sky is too bright or the ground is too dark. This is a very common scenario so how do the pros get perfect exposures in their sunset photos? Well, here I’m going to answer that question and give you 4 great tips to ensure you exposure correctly for perfect sunset photography, every time.
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#sunsetphotography
Thank you so much.
Hi Marc, great stuff, as is all your stuff is. I was wondering if you only shoot in raw, would you first convert to DNG in Light room or would you go directly into camera raw.
why does my raw pictures dims when i download it on my computer but it looks ok my camera lcd? Thanks
An alternative that also works (as some people are a bit against the graduated neutral density filter since it can be done in post and won’t be "burned" into your image) is to shoot on a tripod at your lowest base ISO, expose for the highlights and let the shadows fall where they are and then adjust the exposure in post. If you do this, in many cases, as long as the sky is not more than 5 stops brighter than the ground, you can get a balanced exposure without filters. It’s a bit of a risk because some cameras don’t retain shadow values as well as others (especailly older cameras) so shadow and dark recovery may be more limited.
But while it is good to get something correct out of camera, I would say with sunests and sunrises, you may be better off doing 2 exposures (one for the sky and one for everything else) and merging. Yes this is two exposures and requires blending in post, but with the tools we have to do in today’s RAW processors, this is a very simple process and usually can produce a better result. For one, if you exposed for both elements "correctly" you don’t have to buy filters (as you would probably need different filters for different "intensities" we’ll say, of sky saturation and brightness) and second this means the effect is NOT burned into your RAW image. Another technique (although probably less recommended) might be to use ETTR but this seems to not work as well with sunsets/sunrises because the DR tends to be greater so you don’t gain much doing a single-ETTR shot as you would with two or three bracketed shots, which is the method I use. That way I can use the best parts of each image to get a balanced exposure without the side effects of doing something to a RAW file that cannot be reversed in post (or at least, not as easily), and the software-GND functions in programs like Photoshop and LR are quite convincing and can be non-destructive edits.
Helpful and understandable! Thanks!
Amazing class; great and very well explained technique. Thank you, Sir!
Thanks! This is a wealth of info! For the HDR pic of the tree, could you have accomplished that with a hard ND gradient and fill flash?
Hello Marc, my name is Marck. I appreciate your treatment of long exp and dynamics of sunset exposures, especially related to Raw. I choose to slightly underexpose because you can rover lost light (in most cases), but you cannot redeem overexposure. I have been lucky when not using a filter to slow down the shutter on a tripod and not have to use filters in preproduction, or masks in post production I consider myself a rookie only being behind a DSLR for 26 mos. Thanks, again, Marc!
Thanks for a beautifully simple explanation of a challenging subject – loved it.
Thank you, really informative and helpful, very much appreciated.
How do you get the courage to start trying this stuff
What about taking a portrait of a person standing against a sunset background where the person body occupy both the sky and the ground spaces?
Getting a Lee system really changed my game. It gets expensive but there’s no other way to calm those sun in frame highlights.
i dont think there is a difference between the second method you presented and hdr. they both bracketing/hdr. the fact that you used only 2 exposures or 3 exposures dosent matter really. the procudure in lightroom is much the same.
Thank you for the video.
I have been using GND filter for landscape photography for the last five years or so, the brand is Nisi. It’s really great for resolving the problem of discrepancy in two difference areas of the frame.
However, recently I’ve discovered the technique of HDR both in-camera and in DPP. This is also a great way to address the issue.
As a hobbyist, my images are obviously not at par with pros. But the satisfaction I get by employing any of the above is mind-soothing.
Thanks again.
Great refresher!
Great video, would be much appreciated if you had elaborated a little more on how you used Lightroom to achieve the HDR effect. Thanks
Excellent and informative. Love how you pronounce “H”dr ❤️
Your videos are simply the best of the bunch Marc. Outstanding combination of voice, visual and didactic training. From your professional experience, could you tell me what makes an outstanding photographer? It seems to me that you need a combination of science and art. However the challenge here is that science could be 100 % acquired however art is not and a bigger part of it is inherent. Am I right? If affirmative in your opinion what is the percentage. Thank you. Dr. Ahmed M. Fathie Ph.D
Very helpful breakdown of the options with enough details to do it. No rambling – straight to the points. Perfect!
Please turn on the Closed Caption so it can be accessed.
Thank you for talking about the science of sunset photos. You challenge me to take better photos!
Thank you for the video and helpful tips. I’m not even good enough to call myself a rookie photographer, but I’ve always loved taking photos. For the last several years, due to health issues, I’ve not been able to get out and capture any images. But, I’m now at least thinking about photography again and wondering what I can learn about the craft, so I’ll be better informed if/when I’m able to get out in nature again.
Until this video, I always thought that incredible images like yours were simply the result of expensive equipment, decades of experience, and being at the right place at the perfect time. This video really surprised me by how much additional work — in addition to the gear, experience, location, and timing — can go into obtaining the perfect photo.
On one hand, it’s a good to know that great photographers aren’t always born with such talents and that certain aspects of photography can be learned, practiced, and improved. On the other hand, it’s daunting to think of how much more I might need to learn, in order to be a decent photographer. There’s way more to it that I imagined.
i’ve been wondering why i can’t get a good sunset photo. it’s much easier to use my iphone and let it process everything. But, sometime, it’s either you choose the sunset or the light bottom image. kinda of a hassle.
Marc, all of the videos i have watched have been incredible. I am hooked. Yes, I am a beginner. I have a goal to not only become an educated photographer, and to be able to create pro videography as well. Does school of Photography have content for videography as well? I looked on your web site and could not find anything to this regard.
Thanks again for all you do Sir.
-Kurtis
Thts simple 👍
Thanks love these vidios
I am taking pictures on my S10+ and have bunch of filters. The only type I need is an variable ND filters. Wanna ask for this kind of sunsets what should I buy? Hard graduated or Soft graduated filter N8?
How do you learn the steps to do this stuff like where to expose the focus point eg the sky middle or foreground,when to put in the filter etc and will the filter change your settings by darkening the sky before you should take the shot.I find it confusing
Thank you very much for this explanation. Perfect! Just what I needed.
Great informative video Mark, going to have to give a couple of your tips a try. Thanks again.
Instead of buying expensive filters, you can expose for the highlights and bring up the shadows in lightroom
I really want to learn some of this stuff but have learning difficultys and get over whelmed by the learning curve
🔥🔥🔥
Thanks, very well explained. I subscribed and will watch other videos of yours as well ❤️
Wow, well explained on HDR and use of filters. Great quick video.
dude i wish i cud hire you for one to one tuition you make things as easy as they can be made i guess
For the raw file, it is preferred to make sure there is no clipping on either side. If there is, then you know there is too much dynamic range in the shot relative to capacity of camera. If that is the case, go to one of the other techniques mentioned.
i love how you explain.i am a beginner in photography
I started off taking sunset pictures by exposing for the highlights. The foreground would be dark. Then I got snapseed and Lightroom mobile and started taking pictures in raw. I learned that I could pull up the shadows to balance out the exposure. Next I bought a set of nd filters. I bought a cheap set that were not that good. Color casting was bad and they scratched easily. Then I spent a lot of money and bought a quality set. I did start bracketing my exposures before I had software to edit them with because I knew at some point I would be able to. I started using the HDR in Lightroom. They still didn’t look the way I wanted them to look. I hardly ever use my graduated filters. I still use my 6 and 10 stop filters at times for long exposure. I decided at the beginning of last year that I wanted to learn Photoshop. I also learned about luminosity masking. I bought a plugin called Lumenzia to blend my exposures with. This has been one of the best things I have done to take my pictures to the next level. Yes it is very complex and I’m glad you brought that up. The difference between luminosity masks and using HDR or just working with a single image, I can choose specific areas in the picture to target based on luminosity venues or color tones to adjust. I can put a curves advisement on just the highlights, shadows or a certain color in the image. It’s also great for dodging and burning. I can use a mask to only target those areas. But the key is to get the exposures how you need them in camera first. Then I work on each exposure in Lightroom first to get each one how I want them. I make sure the white balance is where I want it for all 3 shots. When I’m satisfied with each set I move them to Photoshop and blend them together. I’ve also started focus stacking my shots which makes things even trickier. If I take pictures at 4 different spots and I’m bracketing my exposures, that’s 12 frames I’m taking. I think editing is as much fun as being out there taking the pictures.
Hi, can you make a video about how to take cool pictures with old digital camera like a Leica Digilux 1 (4mp) for example ? thx for your work! J.
Good informative video.
Good, clear instruction with no waffle. Many thanks for explaining the techniques so understandably.
This was very good information for beginner photographers, I enjoyed it and I feel it helped me just to remember the basics of how to get a decent sunrise/sunset. I do agree with Phillip Soon in the fact it might have been good to show more detail of how you used the HDR function in lightroom. I know the lesson is aimed at beginners and you probably didn’t want to get too involved in explaining everything to do with it, that’s for another lesson maybe. I would have liked to have seen you maybe show how to use the graduated filters tool in lightroom that perhaps can help you take the same shot but without carrying and fitting then lining up the filters on your camera while out in the field.
Still it was super to watch this video and I love how you are so down to earth and that helps to get things over to us “pupils”. Lol. Thanks again Marc, keep helping us learn 😁