1.01.2010

Photography Fundamentals – Steps on How to Photograph Dramatic Skyscapes


Many poets have sat and watched sunrises and sunsets and have been inspired to write award-winning poetry about what they witnessed. For centuries, great painters have painted with the rich colors of early morning and late evening sky. Now you can capture all the brilliant colors that are found in dramatic skyscapes. You simply have to press the shutter button on your Digital Camera to take a photo of a sky with rich blue colors or one with pinks and blues. In this technique, you learn how to photograph dramatic sunrises and sunsets to get photos that will make excellent prints.

Step 1: Choose day and time to shoot – many factors contribute to, or take away from, the beauty of sunrise or sunset. Clouds are often the key to having a beautiful skyscape as they can reflect the glow from the sun in very stunning ways. As you gain experiences in watching sunrises and sunsets, you’ll learn that you must have time and patience to be able to wait for that picture perfect moment.

Step 2: Set up the tripod and camera – a sturdy tripod is required to shoot sunrises and sunsets. When you’ve decided when and where to shoot set up your Tripod and camera early so you’re ready to shoot when the sky gets painted in rich colors.

Step 3: Choose camera settings – select the slowest ISO setting your camera offers. Use auto focus and select auto white balance. Select aperture priority, then set the aperture to the smallest aperture and allow the camera to choose the shutter speed. If you don’t normally use an image review feature, you should turn it on when shooting sunrises and sunsets because doing so enables you to monitor how well you’ve exposed each shot.

Step 4: Compose and take photos – consider shooting both horizontally and vertically. If objects like trees are nearby, consider shooting to capture foreground items as a silhouette. To get the best silhouettes, you may have to experiment with the exposure by using exposure compensation.

Step 5: Evaluate results and make setting changes – because sunrises and sunsets can often mislead the automatic metering systems found on digital cameras, which can result in a poor exposure, make sure that you check exposure when you shoot by looking at the images on the LCD monitor or by using the histogram. In those cases where you need to make an adjustment, use exposure compensation. Slightly underexposing can make the colors of a sunrise or sunset richer than if they were overexposed.

The most beautiful part of a sunrise or sunset may only last for less than a minute or even just a few seconds. Be careful not to be caught short of space on your digital photo Storage Media when you are shooting a quickly changing sunrise or sunset or you may miss the best part.

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