I can’t tell you how many times I’ve chastised myself for failing to stop when a photo opportunity presents itself while driving. I’m trying to get better about that and here’s an example where I pulled over for a sunset photo… and glad I did.

Driving

Looking in the rear view mirror I see a blast of color with magnificent clouds. Bummer! As I’m traveling at 75 MPH. Guess I’m going to miss it. Wait a minute! There’s a pull off, and I’m going to take it! Even though the peak of color has passed it’s OK. People wouldn’t believe the what I just saw anyway! Color is still soft and magical and the view ain’t half bad. Grab the camera from the trunk and get to work.

sunset silhouette photos
Sunset silhouette with a vertical composition.

The clouds are nicely layered with multiple colors. In the foreground I am blessed with trees in silhouette against the blue mountains. Having a relatively long lens also allowed to isolate a single tree with a great shape above the line. Aha! A subject to with which to work in front of the pastel colored sky. That’ll work!

Work the composition

Once you’ve discovered a scene it’s time to get the most from the moment. The cloud color fades pretty quick so there is a need to work quickly. When you find a decent subject make sure you try different compositions. Horizontal, vertical and panorama are all possibilities. I choose to share a horizontal and vertical composition with you in this article. One note. Try to keep the horizon level when making landscape images. If your camera has one activate the level to save yourself time in post production.

sunset silhouette photos
Horizontal composition. Always watch for a straight horizon. It’s easy to tilt a bit while you are making the capture. Many cameras today have a built in level. Activating it can be a great help. If you miss the leveling you can fix that in post production.

Exposure

When photographing sunsets in order to get deep rich and vibrant color there is a need to underexpose. When you underexpose and you are working a silhouette subject it can block up all the detail. I prefer to overexpose the scene just a bit and bring the sky exposure down in post production. When working this way there are a lot more options for the final look of the image. If you crush your blacks on capture when you try to pull detail out of the shadows you end up with noise galore. You can always take an image that has been exposed to the right and deepen your shadows for best results. Learn more about ETTR technique here. And, here.

I’ll need to stay on this kick of stopping when a photo event reveals itself. Then, I can stop chastising myself for missing them. Back behind the wheel and I can’t wait to get home to process this find!

Yours in Creative Photography,

Bob