How to take great summer photos - Tip 5

The Pier in Naples, Florida

SUNSETS!

Sunsets have a magical power over us, making us stop we are doing and just gaze at the sky, feeling calm, romantic (?) and at peace with the world. We want to freeze and keep that moment forever so we get our cameras out - but often the pictures never seem to capture what we saw with our eyes and what we felt.

Sunsets are tricky - the bright orb in the sky fools the camera sensor, often making the foreground too dark as it over compensates for the bright sky. Or if we focus on something dark in the foreground the sky comes out too bright on our photograph. Ideally you should master things like Exposure Lock or Manual Exposure to get the picture you want but if you haven't got to grips with the techie stuff or your camera doesn't offer them, then there are some easy ways to still get a hot shot!

• Use the sunset scene mode - it uses the appropriate settings and will enhance the colours of the sky and the wispy clouds. Try a shot with and without it to see the difference.
• Wait until the sun is quite low in the sky otherwise it's just too bright. And then be quick as it sinks really quickly!
• Often the best colours appear in the sky when it's just gone below the horizon so don't stop shooting.
• Remember the rule of thirds for your composition (see Tip 4) and get your horizon straight.

Shot at Pickmere Lake Cheshire with sunset mode on a compact camera

• To create a silhouette make sure you're focusing on a bright area in the sky - this is when ideally you need to know a bit more about things like Exposure Lock to really control the results but you can get lucky.
• Silhouettes can give your sunset a story or a point of focus too. In the shot above, I was waiting for the water skier to come into the shot, when the dog ran up and paused for a second to watch - thank you, doggy!
• Don't be afraid to play with your photos in simple editing programmes  to increase contrast and warm up your shot like I did with the one below:

Arnside, South Lakes - photographers' dream

And sometimes it's nice to put the camera down and just watch the sun set with a G&T!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!