Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Sunset

Asian sunsets always seem to appear more orange and red than those in Australia. This one was taken in India near the Pakistan border. We were camped out in the Thar Desert under the stars on a relatively clear night. While waiting for dinner to cook, we could watch the sun set across this rather desolate location.

The setting sun was struggling to shine through layers of thin cirrus clouds making them go a beautiful red colour. For this shot, I biased the exposure towards the sun and clouds which left the foreground a little dark.

In post processing, I further increased the contrast in this image, made it a little darker and added some more saturation to the clouds.


Sunset
Canon EOS Kiss Digital X with a Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens at 320mm EFL.
1/125s, f5.6 & ISO 100
Handheld with IS on.

So, what do you think? Does this capture an Asian orange sunset in an empty place? Should I push the foreground more towards a silhouette or try to brighten it up and add some detail?

Posted by Stephen Parker at 5:53 PM

4 comments:

  1. Craig StoneDecember 22, 2010 at 12:01 PM

    Hi Steve,

    The good:
    I like your clouds, and the fact that they have some wavy lines to them. It's also good that they reach across to the top left of the image because if it was only above the sun it might have looked a bit boring.

    I didn't realise that the sunset looked different from different parts of the world so I'll have a closer look out for it in Oz and see how it compares.

    I like that you have some texture along the bottom edge and not just a completely flat horizon line.

    The bad:
    I'm thinking that if you cannot see enough detail in the bottom, then just make it go black. Maybe just a silhouette as you suggested would be better. Now if you had some mountain ranges with them changing in shade as they disappeared into the distance then that would be another story all together.

    Nice shot.

    Regards
    Craig.

    ReplyDelete
  2. GeoffDecember 24, 2010 at 12:33 PM

    Nice shot here, and a good capture of those sunsets. I like the position of the sun, and the way the orange light flows up to the top left.

    In terms of the foreground, I'd definitely keep it black. I can't think of any detail I'd want to see in there that wouldn't be distracting. Besides, the little lumpy shapes, add a bit of interest about what's being hidden with the waning light.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Stephen ParkerDecember 27, 2010 at 10:48 PM

    Guys,

    I tend to think like you guys. I prefer the foreground as a silhouette too.

    The other question would be is there too much black or not enough. I'm thinking there might be too much black. Perhaps trimming 30% of that black might be better...


    steve

    ReplyDelete
  4. GeoffDecember 29, 2010 at 9:39 PM

    I don't think there's too much black. If anything, I'd possibly add a little more, but not much.

    ReplyDelete

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