Even the magical light of the golden hour requires some enhancement in post-processing. There are a few ways to do it, and Denny Tang of Denny’s Tips suggest one of the simplest I’ve seen so far. He uses a single adjustment layer, and it’s the Channel Mixer. The whole editing process is pretty fast, yet gives natural-looking results on the photos taken during sunset (or sunrise).
Top 18 tips for taking magnificent sunset photos
When you read or hear the expression, “Photography is all about light,” you clearly understand the definition of each word; however, the true meaning from a photography perspective can be elusive. It takes time to fully grasp.
I clearly remember my first true photography experiment that accelerated my understanding of the basics of photography in regard to light.
It was a family camping trip. We had our campsite set on the beach of a small lake nestled in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal. I had plenty of time to experiment with my new Canon Digital Rebel. I set the camera on a tripod and took one picture every hour without changing the camera’s position or settings.
I took a total of 17 shots.
Back home, I transferred the photos to my computer and started analyzing them in Photoshop (Lightroom did not yet exist). I was completely astonished by the results of my seemingly simple experiment. Depending on the time of day, the location was completely unrecognizable. Any photo taken during the middle of the day looked washed out and quite boring. On the other hand, the photos taken during sunset and sunrise looked vibrant and full of energy.
This is when I realized that photography is defined by the quality of light and, contrary to common belief, that location is the secondary component of the equation.
How a photographer creates “Pyramids in the Sky” using camera rotation and sunset
I’ve heard many people say sunset photos are cliché and they all look the same. Therefore, I’m glad to present you with a project that makes them as unique as you can imagine. Photographer Jason D. Page has published a series named “Pyramids in the Sky”, featuring fantastic photos taken at dusk. But these images were made using camera rotation, so the final result is not what you’d expect from a sunset. It’s a series of eye-catching, abstract pyramids, painted by the Sun and the colorful sky in the sunset.
Jason has shared some details about his project with us, as well as the settings and gear he used. So if you still think sunsets are boring, here’s a fresh approach that might change your mind.
How to create a sunset effect in Photoshop
Sometimes it can be hard enough to time the perfect golden hour portrait. What can be even more challenging is to perfectly capture the sun as it’s quickly falling on the horizon.
If you happen to miss it though, don’t fret. The Photoshop gurus over at Phlearn have shared a helpful tutorial showing how you can add your very own sunset effect in Lightroom with a few extra layers and clipping masks.[Read More…]
Sunset Selfie Series Shows How One Man Gets Creative With Cardboard Cutouts
As creative minded people, you might find it stressful when you have to spend too much time in front of a computer screen working. That’s the situation John Marshall found himself in, and to quench his thirst for something hands on and artistic, he started cutting out giant sized cardboard animals to pose with in a really fun selfie series, Sunset Selfies.
“As a writer, I spend too much time sitting down, so I love to step away from all that, get on the floor, draw something, cut it out, and go enjoy the beautiful sunset outside. It’s a very organic process, like being a kid again,” Marshall explained.[Read More…]
This Photo of a Sunset Was Captured By a Robot. On Mars.
The Mars Curiosity Rover snapped this photo of a Martian sunset several weeks ago, on SOL 956 to be exact, and beamed it back to Earth.
Never mind the Rover’s impressive photographic skills, I still find it mind blowing that such a high-res image travelled 225,300,000 km and made it with all the pixels in the right order.
The photo was taken using the left Mastcam, one of several camera systems found on Curiosity.
This 40 Second Timelapse Of A Sunset Behind Mt. Torghatten Took 3 Years To Make
Patience doesn’t always come naturally to some of us, but as photographers it’s definitely a characteristic we should all possess. Take timelapse artist, Harald Warholm, for example. Had he not been determined and patient as a the year is long, we might never have been treated to the timelapse he just completed–3 long years after he started. Though The Sun In The Hole of Mt. Torghatten is only 45 seconds long (that’s short compared to most timelapse videos we share here) watching it, you begin to understand just why it took so long to complete.[Read More…]
These Beautiful Broken Mirror Sunsets Are Anything But Bad Luck
It is a common belief that a broken mirror yields seven years of bad luck. So I was obviously wondering what was Bing Wright thinking when he went ahead with his Broken Mirror/Evening Sky project.
While the sunsets look absolutely real, Bing tells us that he “took photos of sunsets and projected them in the studio. Mirrors reflect projection. The resulting image is a reflection of a reflection of a…“.
As for the mirrors themselves, if you believe in bad luck it is even worse than the initial appearance as “The mirrors were randomly broken- the mirrors are 11×14 inches. Broke a lot of and used only ones with good break patterns“, which means that more mirrors were broken than just the 16 mirrors that were actually shot.[Read More…]
