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Sunset Photography

one of Mike Sugimoto's favorite photographic subjects

Genesis

A reader on photo.net asked a question in that site's discussion forum about predicting good sunsets. I had replied with some information that I'd found useful (specifically, that it's very difficult to do and you usually can't). The thread got deleted (as it should have been), but I found that I had a lot to say about this subject, since it seems to be pretty enduring and my archives seem to be full of sunsets.

Basic Explanations

In the thread I had mentioned earlier, several people made ridiculous statements like, "I hate it when the sun sets behind a cloud or a mountain." This is completely wrong. You need to have something between you and the sun, otherwise you're shooting a big, hot, bright object. If you're unlucky, you'll get flare. If you're really unlucky, you'll get busted optics on your camera. If you're supremely unlucky, you'll end up with damaged eyes. So put something between the front element of your camera and the sun, preferably something in the real world.

Clouds are nice because they cast shadows and have variable transmission of light. Variable light transmission means you'll get different levels of brightness in a scene. Clouds are also good because they scatter light. Scattering light means strange colors. The clouds can make fascinating subjects in their own right.

If you can't put something natural between you and the sun, it's probably not a bad idea to stick a graduated ND filter over the lens and adjust your exposure accordingly. I don't own a graduated ND filter, and I'm not sure I know what I'd do with it even if I did. You can see some interesting examples of GND filter use over here, on Philip Greenspun's filter information page. This image (which is the example that Philip uses) does a good job of illustrating what you can get with a GND filter, but it is taken before sunset; personally, I'd wait about half an hour then shoot at the clouds in the upper left-hand corner of the sky.

Mike's first law of sunset photography: The best sunsets will occur when you don't have a camera around.
Mike's second law of sunset photography: If you do manage to beat the first law, you won't be in a good position to photograph it.
Mike's third law of sunset photography: It's good to be good, but it's better to be lucky.

So how do you predict a good sunset?

The short answer is that you can't. Consider the image at right, from my July 2000 trip to Seattle. After an extended adventure at Gameworks, I'd nagged frink and axxia to walk down with me to the the Pike Street Market, and we wandered around for about half an hour in the streets loaded with cars but strangely empty of people. Somewhere along the line, I spotted this scene and knew I needed a picture of it. I never thought it would turn out to be a good picture -- I was loaded with Fuji Velvia, rated at ISO 40, and saddled with slow lenses -- and I included the "PUBLIC MARKET" sign as a localizing element, but this was the first picture I'd ever taken that I wanted to enlarge, frame, and hang on my own wall.

The moral of this story is simple: