sunsets

[jann1033]

i was reading about sunsets and wondering if anyone has ever tried to use the weather report to know when there should be a good one. the info i read just basically condensed to "high clouds and not a lot of pollutants" . a few weeks back there was a really gorgeous one( of course i was where i could not pull of the road ) but usually they are pretty muted here, which i am guessing maybe due to pollution from surrounding areas since there really isn't industry where i live.

so anyone know much about what to look for in the weather a colorful one

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

i was reading about sunsets and wondering if anyone has ever tried to use the weather report to know when there should be a good one. the info i read just basically condensed to "high clouds and not a lot of pollutants" . a few weeks back there was a really gorgeous one( of course i was where i could not pull of the road ) but usually they are pretty muted here, which i am guessing maybe due to pollution from surrounding areas since there really isn't industry where i live.

so anyone know much about what to look for in the weather a colorful one

I take a lot of sunset pictures. I've consulted those calendars that show the time of the sunset/rise moonset/rise, etc. I've looked at the weather forecast. It's hit or miss. Some days the sky can be overcast and hazy and we'll get a spectacular sunset. Other days it can be beautiful and at the last minute the clouds roll in and you can't see the sunset. Other times the clouds roll in and the sun reflects against the clouds and sky in such a way that it looks like it was touched by the hand of God.
I haven't been able to figure it out either...There was only 1 time that I was in my car and saw a beautiful enough sunset to be motivated enough to pull over and shoot it. It was very unusual as it was an almost blood red sunset and directly above it was black clouds. It was a hot, humid, hazy day and just as the sun was going down I noticed how unusually red the entire surrounding sky was, so I pulled over, grabbed my camera and shot it through a fence. Unfortunately, in the best shot, in terms of the position of the sun, you can still see the fence.

I've got a ton of others that are probably better than these. I was just freaked out by how unusual it was to see the deep red against the black clouds.
ETA: If you look in the middle area of the picture, you can see the Arizona Memorial and parts of Pearl Harbor. This is straight out of the camera.

 

[jann1033]

I take a lot of sunset pictures. I've consulted those calendars that show the time of the sunset/rise moonset/rise, etc. I've looked at the weather forecast. It's hit or miss. Some days the sky can be overcast and hazy and we'll get a spectacular sunset. Other days it can be beautiful and at the last minute the clouds roll in and you can't see the sunset. Other times the clouds roll in and the sun reflects against the clouds and sky in such a way that it looks like it was touched by the hand of God.
I haven't been able to figure it out either...There was only 1 time that I was in my car and saw a beautiful enough sunset to be motivated enough to pull over and shoot it. It was very unusual as it was an almost blood red sunset and directly above it was black clouds. It was a hot, humid, hazy day and just as the sun was going down I noticed how unusually red the entire surrounding sky was, so I pulled over, grabbed my camera and shot it through a fence. Unfortunately, in the best shot, in terms of the position of the sun, you can still see the fence.

I've got a ton of others that are probably better than these. I was just freaked out by how unusual it was to see the deep red against the black clouds.
ETA: If you look in the middle area of the picture, you can see the Arizona Memorial and parts of Pearl Harbor. This is straight out of the camera.

that one is really cool/unusual! i've seen some from the pacific islands that are also really beautifully colored. maybe i just have to move
i was hoping for some kind of "sunset forecast" but guess it doesn't exist

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

that one is really cool/unusual! i've seen some from the pacific islands that are also really beautifully colored. maybe i just have to move
i was hoping for some kind of "sunset forecast" but guess it doesn't exist

Thanks Jann. I thought it was unusual enough to warrant taking a photo of it. Unfortunately, the forecast thing doesn't exist to my knowledge.

 

[zackiedawg]

Believe it or not, pollution actually contributes to the sunsets positively, not negatively! Some of the most vivid oranges and reds come when the sun is seen through a haze of smog in the atmosphere, and anyone who's been around a forest fire knows how powerful and wild looking the sunsets can be through all that smoke.

As for forecasting sunsets...I don't think there is a reliable system for it. No clouds at all can still result in amazing color depending on what happens to be in the atmosphere at the time, the relative humidity, and the sun's proximity. Lots of clouds can result in awesome diffraction and crepuscular effects, and backglow clouds. Sunsets over the ocean usually hit the thick marine layer clouds and create awesome ridge-type shots of the rays above and the ball sinking to the ocean below. Industrial and city locations can be really neat for silhouetting and backlighting effects and haze or heat from machines/generators/smokestacks/etc. To me, there is no bad sunset!

I absolutely ALWAYS carry a camera on me, everywhere I go when I leave the house. Even driving to work or heading to the store, I might see something interesting, and hate not having a camera with me to shoot it. Of course, I don't want to lug a DSLR with me everywhere, which is why I also have an ultra-compact that can be completely discreet yet ready to shoot if the moment strikes.

I love sunsets so much, I have a whole gallery of them, from many cruises all over the seas, lots of Disney trips, around town, and even in my backyard:

http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg/sunrise_sunset&page=all

An example of why I love to have a camera with me at all times: driving home from work (eastbound), I noticed all the color in my rearview mirror, so I stuck my ultracompact through the sunroof facing backwards and fired off a blind shot. You can see the roof and roofrack of my car in the bottom of the frame and the traffic on the road behind...but I'm glad I was able to grab this beautiful sunset:

So I'd say be prepared for a sunset every night, even if it isn't your best camera. A P&S photo of a sunset is still prettier than no photo of a sunset!

And for forecast, I'd probably look for a partly cloudy sunny day with some light smog in the air...but I don't think you can reliably predict which ones are going to be amazing.

Best of luck!

 

[jann1033]

i did find this link form noaa and figured they should know if anyone(most places pretty much said "it's kind of a guess" http://www.spc.noaa.gov/publications/corfidi/sunset/
from this i'm guessing the bright magenta sky i saw while on the freeway( driving none the less) was due to clean air...i'm trying to remember but i think it may have snowed some earlier, i do know it was cold but clear except for some higher clouds so maybe that might have something to do with it. usually the ones near me are orangeish yellow, occasionally hot orange but rarely magenta, i don't recall ever seeing one like that before around here

 

[Chikabowa]

Underexposing your image will result in some very dramatic coloring. And the previous poster is correct... pollution actually adds to the drama of the sunset. And then there is just timing.

I took this about 3 weeks ago. It's straight out of camera, just resized and watermarked for web.

 

[pjacobi]

Believe it or not, pollution actually contributes to the sunsets positively, not negatively!

Volcanic eruptions are known to produce spectacular sunsets. The dust from large eruptions are known to travel the globe. The Krackatoa eruption in Indonesia in 1883 produced spectacular sunset as far aways as England.


-Paul

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Underexposing your image will result in some very dramatic coloring. And the previous poster is correct... pollution actually adds to the drama of the sunset. And then there is just timing.

I took this about 3 weeks ago. It's straight out of camera, just resized and watermarked for web.

Very nice! I have a question, when using spot meter for a sunset photo, do you meter off the sun or are you metering off of something else? Do you move the focus point to the sun? Thanks!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

i did find this link form noaa and figured they should know if anyone(most places pretty much said "it's kind of a guess" http://www.spc.noaa.gov/publications/corfidi/sunset/
from this i'm guessing the bright magenta sky i saw while on the freeway( driving none the less) was due to clean air...i'm trying to remember but i think it may have snowed some earlier, i do know it was cold but clear except for some higher clouds so maybe that might have something to do with it. usually the ones near me are orangeish yellow, occasionally hot orange but rarely magenta, i don't recall ever seeing one like that before around here

Ahhh! That explains it! Thanks for posting that link. There are some beautiful sunsets in that site.
ETA: LOL, so all this time what I thought was clouds was actually pollution! <Cough, cough>

 

[Chikabowa]

Very nice! I have a question, when using spot meter for a sunset photo, do you meter off the sun or are you metering off of something else? Do you move the focus point to the sun? Thanks!

I spot meter EVERYTHING. I actually never use partial or matrix.
In this particular case, I wanted to grab the shot before the horses moved away, so I plugged in some settings I thought might work (I shoot 100% manual exposure) and grabbed this right quick. Turned out I was right on for the shot.

But usually when shooting sunsets, I will meter for the brightest spots around the sun and plug in my settings for that. This gives allows me to underexpose the scene a little, not have too much of a blow out around the sun, and get the deep dark lovely colors. This leaves my foreground dark or in shadow/silhouette - which sometimes is ok, sometimes not. Sometimes I'll bring my subject (if it isn't the sunset itself) back with flash or a video light. Other times, like this one posted, I just leave it in silhouette.

Usually I select my focus point for everything I do. For this particular shot, I selected my focus point on the horses.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Hey Jann, I found some more of my air pollution pictures! I'll never be able to think of the sunset without thinking about air pollution again.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I spot meter EVERYTHING. I actually never use partial or matrix.
In this particular case, I wanted to grab the shot before the horses moved away, so I plugged in some settings I thought might work (I shoot 100% manual exposure) and grabbed this right quick. Turned out I was right on for the shot.

But usually when shooting sunsets, I will meter for the brightest spots around the sun and plug in my settings for that. This gives allows me to underexpose the scene a little, not have too much of a blow out around the sun, and get the deep dark lovely colors. This leaves my foreground dark or in shadow/silhouette - which sometimes is ok, sometimes not. Sometimes I'll bring my subject (if it isn't the sunset itself) back with flash or a video light. Other times, like this one posted, I just leave it in silhouette.

Usually I select my focus point for everything I do. For this particular shot, I selected my focus point on the horses.

Thanks for the info! I've noticed that many times I can't get the focus to lock unless I meter off of a nearby cloud or something. Good to know I wasn't too far off the mark.

 

[Chikabowa]

Thanks for the info! I've noticed that many times I can't get the focus to lock unless I meter off of a nearby cloud or something. Good to know I wasn't too far off the mark.

Yeah, when shooting straight into the sun, focus can be tough to lock in. Finding a darker spot in your frame to focus and then recomposing is usually the best way (or selecting your individual focus point and focusing there). Most of the time, when I'm shooting a sunset, I'm shooting at around f16 anyway, so I can focus just about anywhere and be ok in terms of the scene being in focus.

However, when I'm shooting a backlit subject with some sunflare and nice open aperture, the focus thing can get to be a pain!!

 

[jann1033]

i wasn't really asking about how to shoot a sunset, i wondered if there was anyway to forecast when there was going to be a good one.

according to noaa, due to the difference in particulates( size etc) it said pollution actually mutes the colors( mentioned how LA and NYC aren't known for their sunsets, good point ) which makes sense and probably explains the sunsets in my area which are generally not all that vivid. volcanoes( their particulates) are different but as far as i know none where live i bookmarked the page since it does have some good links for weather that i am always forgetting.
thanks for the imput

d.s.f, particularly ( no pun intended) really like the diagonal cloud one. really nice effect. as far as exposure bryan peterson book says lock exposure on a portion of the sky next to the sun...seems to work pretty good and i also used a graduated nd filter when we were in Fl and got some nice color( use it here also but kind of pigs ear/silk purse )have some i like, but are orange just not the hot pink i drool over ( or the red and black scary sunset ;, that's a new one for me as well)
these are probably the brightest I've taken from near here( well Toronto isn't actually all that near but closer than the tropics or AZ )

don't remember if i used an nd filter here or not, it was from my hotel room

this was last march, which would support the better ones in winter theory. it's a little pink but truthfully i liked the orange water better than the sunset top since there weren't clouds or anything higher in the sky. Lake Erie, 15 miles or so from my house

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

d.s.f, particularly ( no pun intended) really like the diagonal cloud one. really nice effect. as far as exposure bryan peterson book says lock exposure on a portion of the sky next to the sun...seems to work pretty good and i also used a graduated nd filter when we were in Fl and got some nice color( use it here also but kind of pigs ear/silk purse )have some i like, but are orange just not the hot pink i drool over ( or the red and black scary sunset ;, that's a new one for me as well)
these are probably the brightest I've taken from near here( well Toronto isn't actually all that near but closer than the tropics or AZ )

don't remember if i used an nd filter here or not, it was from my hotel room

this was last march, which would support the better ones in winter theory. it's a little pink but truthfully i liked the orange water better than the sunset top since there weren't clouds or anything higher in the sky. Lake Erie, 15 miles or so from my house

I like that last one a lot. Very nice! Come to think of it, most of my good sunset photos are from January through April. (The one's I've been through anyway.) I've been slowly going through my photos and uploading to my online account.
Thanks again for posting that link, I bookmarked it as well. I knew I read not to meter directly off of the sun somewhere; I also have Peterson's book. I guess I should have read it better!
You know what I found really interesting when going through my photos is how dramatically the sunset changes based on the position in the sky. I have a few sets where I started when the sun was still high up and then finished about 15 minutes later. It's a really big difference. I'll see if I can find a few and post it for your comments.

 

[Lachesis00]

What a great topic! I was sure we'd have an amazing sunset the other night, went racing up to S. mountain and alas, it stunk! Almost no color really bummed me out.

 

[ilovehuhu]

Underexposing your image will result in some very dramatic coloring. And the previous poster is correct... pollution actually adds to the drama of the sunset. And then there is just timing.

I took this about 3 weeks ago. It's straight out of camera, just resized and watermarked for web.

Love this one.

 

[Dismom+two]

Here is mine taken in Orlando...heading back to the hotel after a day at the park.

 

[minie_meese]

Here are a few I have taken. The most dramatic change I've ever seen in the sky is in Hawaii. We sat on a beach one time and it was fascinating to watch, just when you thought it was over, another burst of color came out.

This is one I took in Maui a number of ears ago with my old Oly point and shoot

This one is from Cape Code 2 years ago with my Canon XTi

This one is from the Polynesian Resort beach at DisneyWorld from February this year also with my Canon XTi