Sunsets

Sunsets can be a very interesting time to take photographs. As the sun gets further down closer to the horizon the colours keep changing from golden yellow to red. This is due to the amount of atmosphere the light has to go through. There is a whole science around this but to keep it simple the more atmosphere the light rays have to go through the more other colours get absorbed and the golden yellow to red tones get scattered and bounce back to your eye.

While the colours are wonderful to see with the naked eye as a photograph just a coloured sky has a tendency to be a little boring. I find that introducing some item in the foreground adds some dimension and interest to the photograph.

An item I use to shoot a sunset or sunrise as the process is pretty much the same but in reverse, is a polarizing filter or a neutral density filter. I use the Polarizing filter because I have not purchased a ND filter for my lenses. I just find the polarizer brings out the richness in the colours.

When shooting sunsets play around with your exposure or iris if you have one of the older lenses that have an iris ring. You will find that if you close the iris or lower the exposure (under exposing) the colours become darker and richer. This technique can be done to many other types of photography.