Captutring Sunsets.

[plodsie]

* Sorry, this should probably go into the Photo Techniques forum - can someone who can, move it for me*

Hi folks, a little new to the photography world as an avid beginner. I have a Canon 500D which suits my needs at the minute.
The thing is how to go about capturing sunsets but without completely blackening the picture up. Here is one I got in September. I used a polarising filter (is this right) to kind of subdue the light from the sun and then moved exposure down 0.5. What are the ideal settings/filters for sunsets?

[StephenBatey]

Not a polarising filter - that reduces light everywhere. Beyond that, it depends on the effect that you want.

If intended for a competition, I have been told that silhouettes are marked down as technically inept even if artistically justified, so people tend to try to get detail. That means reducing the light in the sky part and leaving the foreground unaffected, which is the job of a graduated neutral density filter. Soft grad is probably better for you.

Alternatively, tripod mount and make more than one exposure at different settings to get the sky and foreground as you like it and merge in Photoshop. Or use HDR software.

Settings as always depend on what you want, and the conditions at the time and place. I couldn't possibly advise on that, although given that digital exposures are cheap, you could experiment to find out how far off what you want the camera's meter is.

[donoreo]

Aside from what was mentioned above, you can also fake a graduated filter in software.

[plodsie]

Thanks for that. I have a gradual grey filter that may just do the job you mention Stephen.

Thanks for your help.

[DigiDiva]

Shoot in RAW too, so any blown out highlights from the sun can be adjusted.

[wavemachine]

Do you have elements or photoshop?

If you do as Donero mentioned you can emulate a graduated filter to do this you will need to shoot on a tripod and take two photos of the sunset, one exposed for the ground and one exposed for the sky.

Open up both images in elements/photoshop and add the image exposed for the ground as a layer on top of the one exposed for the sky.

Create a layer mask and select the gradient tool ( black to white ) and drag it from just above the bottom of the sky to the top of the ground. Experiment by dragging from different positions of the sky to the ground.

He is one I did a couple of weeks ago:-

[StephenBatey]

Ah, I took it that he was referring to a graduated burn since he said that his comment was in addition to mine.

[plodsie]

Thanks for your help here. The biggest fault I had was that I didn't take the tripod on this occasion - very much a beginners error. I have PS Elements so hopefully that would do the job as well. I'd never have thought of doing that with the 2 different exposures so it's a great tip and one that I'll be sure to remember - as well as the tripod!

I shoot in both RAW and JPG so thanks for that tip too DigiDiva.

Thanks for all your help on this, they are great shots when you get them right as Dave has shown above!

[Jimbojumbo]

Great post and topic, I went out as a result of this post to see what or how easy/ hard it was to do a sunset myself.

Well I got 9 shots off and the only one I liked was the blown one. That may be down to the buildings and their lack of appeal in the foreground.

Focus point was the tower on the left and with the bright sky background it created the silhouette. I tried using different focus points with spot focus and each time got a different level of exposure. Oh and hand held was the method, kit lens 18-55 Sony NEX-5N. Aperture priority.

image by Jimhas7, on Flickr

I guess silhouette photo's have their place but will only really mean anything to the taker because you know what's hidden.