How to get a good sunset picture

[isabel95]

Don't accept the exposure the default camera setting decides for a sunset and don't have HDR on.

If the image looks brighter on your phone screen than what your eye see of the ambient light it will yield an image that is too bright.

I underexposed 2x on the Note 4 for this image.

Whenever you have a contrasty image with very bright highlights, they're bound to be overexposed and lacking detail in those areas.

Use your exposure value adjustment, sliding it to the minus side.

 

[walhalla]

Nice shot...

 

[goin_nil]

Great tip. Thanks. Will have to try that.

 

[Tatt2014]

The picture is Beautiful !! Thanks for the tip

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[rdiddy_25]

Beautiful pic isabel!!!

 

[MalinoisK9]

Did you try with hdr on? Just curious why that wouldn't make the shot better since it does take multiple shots at different exposures and technically should give more dynamic range to the shot though don't know if you can make adjustments to it. Still a really nice shot you have there.

 

[neonworm]

Nice picture! Where is that?

 

[isabel95]

Yes, I did. Just washed everything out and took the vibrancy out of the sunset color.

Thanks!

 

[bertsirkin]

Did you try with hdr on? Just curious why that wouldn't make the shot better since it does take multiple shots at different exposures and technically should give more dynamic range to the shot though don't know if you can make adjustments to it. Still a really nice shot you have there.

For the most part, HDR will ruin most images. HDR basically will dramatically reduce the contrast - this can be good for a "documentation" image, where you need everything in the image to be seen. But, in most picture taking, it will just make images look washed-out and lifeless.

 

[anthony2558]

I just took this yesterday evening. It was set to auto.

 

[BB_Junky]

Don't accept the exposure the default camera setting decides for a sunset and don't have HDR on.

If the image looks brighter on your phone screen than what your eye see of the ambient light it will yield an image that is too bright.

I underexposed 2x on the Note 4 for this image. View attachment 158694

Whenever you have a contrasty image with very bright highlights, they're bound to be overexposed and lacking detail in those areas.

Use your exposure value adjustment, sliding it to the minus side.

Have no idea what your talking about as I'm camera dumb, but awesome picture wow. I'm guessing the settings is in the camera app it's self for said adjustments.

 

[bassplayrguy]

Wow. That's pretty amazing. I took one the other night and it was good on auto but not as good as the underexposed you did. I will have to try that. Great shot.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[MalinoisK9]

For the most part, HDR will ruin most images. HDR basically will dramatically reduce the contrast - this can be good for a "documentation" image, where you need everything in the image to be seen. But, in most picture taking, it will just make images look washed-out and lifeless.

Hasn't been my experience so far with hdr. From the shots I've taken using hdr it does exactly what it should, increase the dynamic range. I'd put a pic but can not figure out how to get it to post properly. If anyone call help with getting portrait to post properly I'd love to know.

 

[muzzy996]

Hasn't been my experience so far with hdr. From the shots I've taken using hdr it does exactly what it should, increase the dynamic range. I'd put a pic but can not figure out how to get it to post properly. If anyone call help with getting portrait to post properly I'd love to know.

I think that in this case the look you are envisioning for the shot differs from what the original poster and others among us are envisioning. Neither vision is wrong, just different. In this case one would expect HDR to attempt to expose the shadows more. It remains to be seen whether exposure compensation settings would counter that but like the OP I wouldn't think to try when shooting a shot like this when I know that I want the silhouettes of the trees to clip completely black. Worth experimenting though now that you bring it up.

Or have you shot lots of sunsets with HDR on with great silhouettes?

 

[k9carguy1]

Took this and edited with snapseed

 

[worwig]

Don't accept the exposure the default camera setting decides for a sunset and don't have HDR on.

If the image looks brighter on your phone screen than what your eye see of the ambient light it will yield an image that is too bright.

I underexposed 2x on the Note 4 for this image..

Did you 'tap and hold' any place on the screen to focus and meter on, or is that center metering?

I suspect that if you metered on the brighter part of the sky, you wouldn't need to alter the exposure level.

 

[ChemMan]

From what I have read from opinions by "real photographers" the Note 4's automatic mode does not utilize the full capabilities of the camera. To get the superb results the Note 4 is capable of some tweaking of the camera setup must be done when the photo is taken. This fact is reflected in the many complaints about poor photo quality. It is not that the camera is not capable of taking good pictures it is that the operators of the camera are not capable of setting the camera up to take good pictures. Similar situation when I am using my Canon point and shoot and my DSLR, the Canon p&s simply cannot physically get the unique setup for a good exposure sometimes.

 

[bertsirkin]

Hasn't been my experience so far with hdr. From the shots I've taken using hdr it does exactly what it should, increase the dynamic range. I'd put a pic but can not figure out how to get it to post properly. If anyone call help with getting portrait to post properly I'd love to know.

The purpose of HDR is to increase dynamic range by combining the properly exposed parts of an overexposed and underexposed image. And, during that process, the camera needs to perfectly align multiple images - something that doesn't always work just right. What HDR does, in effect, is brighten shadows and darken highlights - which basically reduces the contrast in an image. In a limited number of images, you may get a better image with HDR on than off. BUT, there isn't anything wrong with an image with limited dynamic range. For example, the sunset images in this post would be ruined had they been taken with HDR on. You would see detail in the dark areas, which would distract your attention from the subject - the colorful sunset - in effect, ruining the image. It would also have made the image "muddy" looking - no eye-popping contrast.

Using sophisticated desktop software, it is possible to get great HDR images, but the scene itself must be just right, and the person using the software must be very knowledgeable about the process. It's impossible for the camera to automate this process and get it right, except for an occasional lucky image.

Limited dynamic range can be a very good thing in photography. The ability to use shadows to eliminate distracting details in an image is a tool that all pro photographers use extensively.

Most of the time, you don't want increased dynamic range in photography.

 

[isabel95]

You and Snapseed did a great job on it. I love the color range you got. Very impressive! What functions in Snapseed did you use?

 

[isabel95]

I've been using digital cameras for over 17 years and there has not been ONE that doesn't overexpose highlights. I routinely use minus exposure compensation to prevent loss of detail.
In my regular cameras that have histograms or highlight "blinkies" I use those tools to predict what areas will be overexposed if I click the shutter with the settings the camera chooses.
With the Note 4 I rely on what the lcd shows me - which can still be unreliable since I chose the light level displayed!
For general use I keep the display as dark as possible to preserve battery life, so I can be misled, but if a sunset looks overexposed when I have the display so dark, I know I'm going to have a washed out picture.

You are so right, chuck, about tweaking the camera settings for the best results - and that applies to regular cameras as well!