A Beautiful Sunset

I love sunrise and sunsets especially when it comes to photography. Sunrises usually mean less sleep but once you are up the photos are always amazing. In some ways they are worth the effort as the locations which are usually busy during the evening are empty during sun rise.

Leela Palace, Udaipur

The photo above is an evening shot, what add to the photo are the wonder clouds in the sky. I must admit that the colours were not exactly like this but the they were close. I have moved the white balance to the warmer side and added a little more warmth on the left side of the image in Lightroom using the white-balance slider.

For the over all image the highlights were pulled down a bit and shadows pulled up. Lastly a minor tweak to the contrast by pulling it down and the final image is ready.

In case you are struggling to take photos during sunrise and sunsets check out my post on this. It's easy and the final images are worth it. Below is an image of the Taj Mahal and its worth getting up that early as the place is almost empty

Taj Mahal At Sunrise

In case you have any questions feel free to contact me by posting a comment on my Facebook page or by adding a comment below. You can also fill out the contact form on my website. Until next time happy shooting

Creating Dramatic Sky's with Filters

Recently I was out and about in the streets of Gurgaon doing some photography of architecture and wanted to create some images with nice dramatic sky's. As the sun started to set I did not get the beautiful deep reds you get at sun-set time. Anyone who has visited Gurgaon would know that the place is notorious for its ugly greyish blue sky's, sometimes even on clear days!. Solution - Filters. I had brought along my graduated sunset filter. Just put the filter in front of the lens and the sky goes from being boring and dull to dramatic pink or orange. Thought the below image could have be edited and created in post processing I was not keen on editing the images on my system.

What you see below are the same images with minor differences in white balance. The one with a pinkish shade has a florescent white balance while the one with the orange colour has a daylight white balance. (These images are strait out of the camera with only change of white balance in post processing.)

Photographing Sunrises and Sunsets

I am sure all of us have looked at a sunrise or sunset and picked up your camera and when click it and you see the final image it is nothing like what you saw especially if you shot it auto. For this you need to go to full manual. Before I give you the shot cut to shooting sunsets you need to know some thing about the camera. Your camera at the moment cannot see what your eye can see. It can either see the foreground or the background if you shoot directly into the light. It does not have the dynamic range. So make the most of what you get. You want to shoot the beautiful colours of the sky then just expose for that. This is where metering comes in. When your camera is in auto it is for the most part evaluating the whole scene and takes an average of the light coming in and then determines the shutter speed and aperture. Because the sun is so bright it throws the average off and what you get is an over exposed image. That one bright spot has moved the average up.


How to get around this. There is simple technique, you put the camera on full manual, put the camera on matrix metering. What ever reading you get for your exposure for the shutter under expose by two or three stops. So if you get a shutter reading for 1/50 for correct exposure just double or triple the shutter speed and you will have the exposure you want. Another way to go is to bracket the shots and create an HDR. This way you will get the beautiful light on the foreground and the great colours of the sky.


A few things you should keep in mind when shooting sunrises and sunsets is to be prepared. Try and scout the location in advance especially for sunrises. It's dark and you don't want to get hurt getting to the place to shoot. Having the composition in mind will help. Know what time the sunrise/sunset is going to happen. You don't want to be late. Carry a tripod and keep gear to a minimum. 


You don't need fancy equipment to pull this off but it would be nice to have. Some photographers use a tilt shift lens when they photograph sunrises so they can move the plain of DOF. There are some who use coloured filters to accentuate the colours. You can also use graduated ND filter. A graduated ND filter will give you a few stops of light difference between the sky and the foreground. This means less work in post processing (especially if you are doing HDR via bracketing). 


Most importantly once got your shot do take a moment to savour the beautiful scenery. Often times we photographers forget to enjoy the moment when trying to nail the perfect shot.

If you found all of the above stuff confusing check out what James Beltz from www.phototips.biz has to say. He really makes it simple in the following video

Here are some links you might find useful



12 Tips for Photographing Stunning Sunsets
SUNRISE AND SUNSET PHOTOGRAPHY