Sunset at Sandbrdige
This is probably the most gorgeous sunset shoot I've ever been on. The sky was just on fire that night. I didn't do much in the way of pushing the c...
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This is probably the most gorgeous sunset shoot I've ever been on. The sky was just on fire that night. I didn't do much in the way of pushing the colors on this one. Taken in November 2003 at the Back Bay Wildlife Refuge in the Sandbridge area of Virginia.
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Mar, 2015Views
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Awards
People's Choice in Vivid Sunset Colors Photo Challenge
Superb Composition
Peer Award
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Superior Skill
Genius
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at the very marshy Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia.Time
I took this shortly after sunset. The sky looked like it was on fire that night and actually, we thought we saw a fire in the distance. I couldn't help but wonder if that fire was throwing up some particles into the atmosphere that were adding to the color.Lighting
The lighting was au naturale.Equipment
This was taken a while ago when I still had my old Nikon Coolpix camera. It had no interchangeable lenses, only a very long zoom lens. No flash was used.Inspiration
The lighting was the big inspiration for this picture. It was one of the most vibrate sunsets I've seen.Editing
I did very little in post to this image. It was taken when I was still shooting in jpg format, so a slight push on the colors and about 1 degree of straightening was it for the post processing on this one.In my camera bag
Nowadays, I carry a Nikon D5500 with five Nikon lenses ranging 18-300mm, one Tokina ultra-wide 11-16mm lens, a Joby Gorrillapod, a Benro tripod, several filters, a wireless remote, and other misc accessories.Feedback
To get a good sunset shot, start by finding a good location before sunset so that you're ready to go when the lighting starts getting good. When scouting a location, it helps to find either an interesting foreground element or something of interest to create shadow(s) or lead the eye into the image. Don't just shoot the sun setting. Stick around until after it's gone to shoot what some refer to as the after sunset sunset. It may take a short while after the sun actually sets for them to appear, but the colors are often more vivid shortly after the sun sinks below the horizon. Don't rely on the camera's metering system. It's likely that it will blow out your image. You've got to shoot in manual to properly shoot a sunset. You also have to under-expose. You can run test shots until you get the right exposure. But, don't just rely on your own sight to determine exposure. In the evening hours, the image will appear brighter on your LCD screen than it is in reality, so learn how to read the histogram and check that for exposure as well. Keep it at 100 ISO and use a tripod if you can and most definitely if the shutter speed is too slow to handhold. Finally, a neat trick is to change your white balance to "cloudy" or the equivalent setting for your camera. It will add warmth to your sunset shots.
