Four Steps to Capture and Edit Stunning Sunset Photos
Do your sunset photos tend to come out dark, under exposed and just disappointing? I’m going to show you four keys to guarantee you end up with stunning, colorful photos next time you shoot at sunrise or sunset.
Sunrise and sunset are some of the most popular and sought-after times for photographers to capture beautiful images. No matter how many times you’ve seen a fiery sky, it never gets old. Problem is, photos tend to come out too dark based on the low light you find in the early morning or late in the evening.
When I got my camera one of the first shots I took was this dark, underexposed, boring sunset shot (first shot below). In fact, if you look at my Instagram account this is one of the first pictures I posted. And it’s pretty rough.
Compare that to a photo I recently posted (second shot below) and you can I’ve come a long way since then. It's visually much more exciting. You've got some imagery in the foreground that looks really good. The colors are sharp and vibrant. You've got some nice reflections on the water and some interesting clouds in the sky.
I can attribute this improvement to several steps I’ve focused on as I’ve gained experience. So today I’m going to share my approach to taking photos at sunrise and sunset. I’ll walk through the four steps you can follow to capture and edit photos you’ll be proud of.
Step #1: Planning
The first step to improving your sunrise and sunset photography is planning.
Conditions have a big impact on how your photos are going to come out. One of the factors I tend to do is look at is sky cover. Usually the best conditions occur when there is between 30-70% sky cover. This gives enough cloud cover to show the colorful reflections of the sun, without blocking it out entirely.
One of the primary places I look for weather info is on weather.gov. This website lets you enter a zip code a zip code and it shows you a graph of the conditions over time, hour by hour.
Another resource I use is an app called PhotoPills. It lets you plot a certain point on a map and you can see the angle of the sun when it's rising and when it's setting. This helps determine what location might work best for you if you want to capture either sunrise or sunset.
Step #2: Settings & Setup
Step number two in this process has to do with understanding your settings and having the proper setup. The first thing you're going to want to do is use a tripod. Having a firm tripod gives you a firm base. This lets you use slower shutter speeds without getting that shake that will blur your camera.
It’s also important to understand the settings on your camera to make sure you're ready for different conditions. For example, finding the balance between shutter speed and aperture. Something to consider is when the sun is in the sky, you're going to use a faster shutter speed due to the bright conditions. You don't want to have too much light coming in or you risk overexposing the photo.
Once the sun is out of sight, you can be a little more flexible with your shutter speed so you can slow it down. This is an opportunity to get those long exposure shots you might be looking for.
I usually try to get my aperture in the range of f/9 to f/11. That generally gives you a good depth of field, but it also doesn't open it up too much where it's too bright or close it down where it's too dark.
But really it's all about trying different combinations that are going to work depending on the scenario. I would recommend experimenting a bit to see which combinations end up working for you.
When it comes to ISO, you want to keep that as low as possible. I try to stay as close to ISO 50 as I can. If you need to increase it, just experiment and see what you can do. Keep in mind that as you increase the ISO, you're going to get some noise in your shot. This can sometimes be cleaned up afterwards, but it always looks better to not have that on the front end.
When focusing, I always try to use manual focus as much as possible in lower light. Auto focus really struggles as the light fades. I also use focus peeking to make sure that I can see which part of the image is actually in focus. It'll shades the in-focus portions of your image in your viewfinder. If you haven't used that setting before, check your manual to see how to turn it on. It’s made a huge difference in my photography.
I would also recommend shooting in raw versus shooting in a JPEG format, the file size much larger. But what that lets you do is it brings in a lot more information. You'll have much more flexibility with bringing back some of those details that might be lost otherwise.
Step #3: Create an Interesting Composition
The third step is to try and create an interesting composition. This can be easier said than done, but it’s well worth taking the time to find other elements to bring into your photo.
What I try to do as often as possible is come up with something creative to make the image a little more dynamic. Some examples are getting a reflection in the water, or a window, or even a puddle. I've gotten some amazing shots of sunrises and sunsets where the reflection is the most dynamic element.
Here are some other compositions to try out:
Sunburst: Once the sun is up or before it's set, if you have a tree or some other object, try get a sunburst around it. This adds a dynamic element to the shot.
Shoot the Moon: Try to capture the moon as it’s rising or setting over the horizon. If you use a telephoto lens you can try to line the moon up with a lighthouse, church steeple or bridge from a distance. This gives the illusion that the moon is much larger than it normally looks.
Long exposure water shots: Another option a long exposure shots around water. Try shooting near the ocean where you can capture crashing waves.
Bottom line, adding some context and scale to an image makes it much more interesting than just having the sky as the primary focus.
Step #4: Creative Editing Techniques
Once you get back and your shots are all taken and you're looking at those in your computer, that's really where the magic happens.
When you’re out shooting, you might look at your images on the camera and feel underwhelmed with the results. But when you pull those into Lightroom (or whatever software you use) you have the opportunity to turn them into something spectacular.
Something to keep in mind is that when it comes to color in the sky, just a little bit can go a long way. While you can’t adjust your composition in post processing (other than re-cropping), you have a lot of flexibility and room to be creative with your colors. Even if they're subtle in your original shot, you have the ability to bring those colors back out when you edit.
Ideally you want the image to look close to what you saw with your eye in the moment. However, that often not what comes out of your camera. This is one of the reasons I recommend shooting in RAW format, as I previously mentioned. It allows you to recover the light and colors that might not show up initially.
Here are two editing tools I use when I’m working in Lightroom.
Intersecting masks: Try using intersecting masks to create a smooth transition in the sky. For example, I like starting with a linear gradient, coming from the top of the shot and going down past the horizon. To avoid having this overlap with any structures that stick up past the horizon (like a building or a tree), I add a luminance mask.
By intersecting these two masks with each other you’re able to have a gradual transition with your sky edit, without impacting other portions of the photo. I will often bring down the highlights and sometimes add some dehaze to the sky to add some drama.
Color Calibration: The other technique I use is to use the color calibration section to add saturation. This is more subtle than adjusting the global saturation slider, while still adding a nice amount of color. I find that the global saturation can quickly make the photo look fake and over saturated. Instead, just bringing up the blue slider in color calibration does the trick. The green and red sliders can help as well, but I often find that just bringing up the blue does the trick.
To see some live examples, watch the YouTube video linked above!
