Beautiful sunsets

[Sporgon]

Looking North up the East coast of England, from Flamborough Head

1/80, f1, ISO100, 24-105 @45

[tron]

Looking North up the East coast of England, from Flamborough Head

1/80, f1, ISO100, 24-105 @45

f1, @45    ?

[Sporgon]

Looking North up the East coast of England, from Flamborough Head

1/80, f1, ISO100, 24-105 @45

f1, @45    ?

Oops, f11 @ 45mm

And it actually looking North West of course ! 

[trstromme]

technically not a sunset, as it is the midnight sun, so it won't set...


http://www.flickr.com/photos/trondstromme/

[Cory]

Would anyone mind presenting their "sunset" techniques/settings while I put my jaw back into its joints. 
Thanks much.

[fugu82]

5D3, Sigma 15mm with 10-stop ND gel, f/16, ISO 100, 13 sec.

[cellomaster27]

no ND filter?? wow.  Because I always get either a really bright sky or dark dark landscape.  :/  let me see then... 100 iso, f8-11, and around 1000 shutter?  idk  I guess i just need to practice more..  I live in Montana and only if I could take nice sunsets.  Thank you!

nope, no ND filters on my shots
if you're referring to a graduated ND filter, those can be really useful at times but I don't use them either.
If I have to, I'll pull an ND grad effect in Post (Lightroom does this nicely if needed).
Sometimes you may need to do an NDG filter, sometimes not.
In my examples above it's just a straight shot as is.
I usually start at 100 iso, 1/500 and f/8 (sunny 16) and adjust as required for the conditions.

MO should have some great sunsets!  I used to travel I15 every fall years ago and those dusty skies were sometimes full of color.  Good luck!

+1  Thank you!  Think that helps!  -writes in photo notes-

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

5D3, Sigma 15mm with 10-stop ND gel, f/16, ISO 100, 13 sec.

That's a beauty.  Nicely done!

[Kernuak]

I nearly always use grads, with a few older ones using HDR. I was using a reverse grad from Singh Ray, until Upgraded to the Lee system and it no longer fit, so I had to make do with conventional grads. Yesterday, my new reverse grad arrived, so I can start playing again. Settings vary, but generally, because of the type of terrain I tend to shoot, I'm looking at maximum DoF, so typically around f/16 on full frame, f/22 at a push or f/11 or sometimes wider, if I can get away with it. I have also deliberately reduced shutter speed for effect sometimes, either with a polarise, solid ND or lowering the ISO to 50.

[Don Haines]

out in the back yard watching the sunset and a Great Blue Heron flew past....

[Aglet]

out in the back yard watching the sunset and a Great Blue Heron flew past....

I do like when a bird positions itself nicely in the frame for me while I'm shooting a sunset or sky shot. That's a nice shot.

[trstromme]

Would anyone mind presenting their "sunset" techniques/settings while I put my jaw back into its joints. 
Thanks much.

Hi, I wouldn't go so far as to say there are any specific "sunset techniques" as much as there are general photographic techniques. It's basically the same as photographing a lot of other landscape stuff; decide on how much DOF you want, what to expose for, composition and mood, then press the trigger..
Now that's simplifying it a lot.
Especially in shooting things like sunset, sunrises etc. one of the more difficult things to deal with is contrast.
Compromises would often have to be made, but there are things that can help.
ISO, shutter speed, f-stop. These basically decide the exposure, based on what the camera typically wants to expose for; a medium gray exposure. especially when shooting handheld, or if you don't want motion artifacts in your shots then compromises in either would have to be made.
As I said dealing with contrasts in these types of shots is often essential.
Typically the sky will be blindingly hot and burnt out if you want to preserve details of the scenery.
Multiple exposures and a lot of fiddling in PS, the Gimp or LR can bring those back under control, but not always.
ND grad filters, of various densities (loss of stops) are in my opinion essential tools to bring the contrast between sky and land under control.
There are various makes and densities of ND grads, Lee, Hitec, Cookin are a few of the makers.
Cokin, which I've stuck to most (price and availability in Norway) are cheap and does the job well. But as far as I can see they offer just grads that are linear, where the slope of the density increase (loss of light) is linear across the filter. The other makers offer reverse grads (I've just received a Hitec one I'm looking forward to try. These are darker around the middle of the frame, perfect to bring the horizon under control before gradually sloping off towards the "top"
Also the other makers offer ND grads that have a more defined edge (steeper slope) in the middle. (hard edge they are referred to)
Anyway, meter the sky and landscape to settle on how many stops difference there are, then settle for one that evens out the contrast as you want it. (though don't overdo it, naturally our eyes expect the sky in such situations to be brighter than the landscape.)
In use, either get a filter holder or just hold it in front of the lens, then slide it up and down to get the right effect. (remove the lens hood)
If you are shooting with a tripod I often tend to use manual exposure in combination with my 7D's live view and exp. simulation modes. This will give you the effect immediately. Slide up or down, pick a different filter, or filters to stack until you are satisfied.
If you overdo stacking of the filters, at least with my Cokins, an often undesired color cast can be introduced where the filtering effect is the strongest.
One problem with ND grads is if you are shooting a landscape with lots of detail on the sides of the frame, like trees, mountains as seen from a valley etc. (I'm from Norway, mountains and valleys are very prominent here..) These features will then shot a distinct linear darkening that reveals the use of an ND grad, but this can be fixed either by multiple exposures, flash (think trees, not mountain sides) or some selective dodging or burning.

If you look in my flick stream, I've added comments to a lot of my recent images on filter usage. http://www.flickr.com/photos/trondstromme/

[Click]

out in the back yard watching the sunset and a Great Blue Heron flew past....

Very nice shot Don. Beautiful colors ...And the bird is a plus to your image. Well done.

[Click]

Great shots trstromme. I especially like the pink sky in the first one. Nicely done.

[ERHP]

Nice trstromme!  I miss being somewhere where the golden hour's clock gets stuck.

One from Sunday from the south side of Mt Palomar.


Sunset Cliffs, Monday.  About 15 minutes apart with the fun factor being to dodge tourists using their P&S camera flashes to 'brighten' the distant clouds.




5D III w/ 16-35mm II and CPL.