7 Ways to Avoid a Cliche Sunset Photo
Just admit it — you can't help yourself from taking sunset photos. We all do it. The problem is that (since we all do it) sunset photos can be extremely cliche. So when the sun starts going down, you've got to think outside the box to get unique photos. Here are some tips to get your creative juices flowing.
Be sure to read the note at the end of the post!
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1. GO WIDE
While you might be tempted to whip out that super-telephoto lens and get up close on the sun as it goes below the horizon, you might consider going the opposite direction with your lens choice. The sky is pretty big and sunsets can cover a large portion of it. My lens of choice is the Sigma 10-20mm pulled all the way back to 10mm. This gives me over 100 degrees angle of view and it makes for some stunning landscapes and sunsets.
2. GET COLORFUL
Sure, sunsets can be really colorful and great on their own, but they can often look the same (especially when you live in an area with very infrequent cloud cover). My solution: shoot some slide film and get it cross processed. The blueish-green photo was shot with Velvia 50 while the pinkish-purple one was shot with Velvia 100.
3. WAIT AROUND
If you're with a group of photographers you'll hear the shutters rev-up just as the sun begins to cross the horizon — this is when the colors are most obvious to our eyes. But wait around for another 10 or 20 minutes and shoot some long exposure stuff with a tripod. Even though you can't see the colors, they're still hanging around. After the sun sets, the upper sky will tend to turn a deep blue, almost purple.
4. TAKE TWO
Play around with double exposures and see what you can come up with. If you're shooting digital, you could probably come up with all sorts of ways to combine your sunset photos to create alien landscapes. If you're shooting film, just remember that areas of shadow will show the double image more strongly.
5. TURN AROUND
We're programmed to shoot right into the sun at sunset — that's usually where the fun stuff is happening. But take a second, peel the camera away from your face, and look around. Maybe that sunset is creating a brilliant lighting situation right behind you.
6. USE PROPS
Take the ramp, bike, and board out of this photo and you now have a beach sunset pic that looks just like 50% of every beach sunset photo ever taken. Look for things to place in the foreground in order to add more interest to the scene.
7. FORGET THE COLORS
Sunset photos are generally known for their great colors, but sometimes pulling the color out can make the photo a better one. Focus on lines and shadows while you're shooting the sunset, in addition to the other black and white photography tips.
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Post your own sunset tips and photos in the comments! I'd love to see some tip/photo combos down in the comments. You can use the “img” hmtl tag to display images or click on the link below the comment box if you're unfamiliar with html (please limit the photos to 500px or smaller). After the comments slow down, I'll pick out some reader tips and photos for a follow-up post!
[UPDATE]: I've posted a follow-up article on this topic highlighting all the great sunset photos and tips from the readers — check it out! Definitely worth the read!
John Milleker
February 6, 2009Great article. A Sunset can be taken anywhere in the world. Give your viewer some hints to help them figure out where the image was taken.
Jeremy Brooks
February 6, 2009Great post! Thanks for the tips; I’ll keep them in mind next time I see a sunset.
Trevor Carpenter
February 6, 2009Wonderful tips, Brian! I appreciate reading easily applicable content like this. The next time I head out for a sunset, I intend to turn around, just for a change.
Brian Auer
February 6, 2009C’mon let’s see some photos!
Tony
February 6, 2009Silhouettes tend to be a fail-safe way of enhacing your composition. Get someone to stand between you and the sun.
[img]https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1198/950886063_6f71485cdc_m.jpg[/img]
Oleg
February 6, 2009Thanks for this list, it’s straight to the point and very inspiring!
Scott Coulter
February 6, 2009OK, one thing you haven’t mentioned yet is HDR… this can be good for emphasizing the colors that are present and making the cloud patterns more dramatic. Works best on days with not too much wind, so the clouds don’t blur/ghost when the exposures are blended:
[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3131/2894222822_ef0de27a71_m.jpg[/img]
Brian Auer
February 6, 2009Great stuff so far! Remember to link your photo by wrapping it with html or just leave the link in the text above or below the image so people can visit your photos on Flickr or your personal websites.
If you have photos on Flickr, just click on the “All Sizes” button, pick an appropriate size image (like 240px), and copy the html code into the comment box here. That code will show the photo and it will be linked back to your main Flickr page for the image.
Andrew Ferguson
February 6, 2009Here’s one I took on a trip to Saskatchewan a couple years ago:
Tim Solley
February 6, 2009You could try HDR, as I’ve done…once:
Tim Solley
February 6, 2009Or, go for a detail shot:
Brian Auer
February 6, 2009Awesome!
Just a quick note on the comments… apparently Askimet doesn’t like the comments with images very much because every one of them was kicked to the spam bucket. I had to pull it out of the spam, but it had removed the image tag. So I put the images back into the comments for you guys.
I’ve installed a different spam catcher and turned off Askimet, so we’ll see how it works from now on. Let me know if you have any problems making comments or posting images.
Gary
February 6, 2009Great photos, both in the article and the comments!
Here is my tip… Look to shoot the sunset reflected in an object. It can help to make the shot more abstract, and gets the viewer more engaged in the photo as they try to figure it out.
Brian Auer
February 6, 2009Hmm… still having issues with the images being stripped out. Not sure what’s causing it. Just keep submitting them and I’ll fix them as they come in.
Chris
February 6, 2009I’m more of a sunrise person (as you can see by the last 2 pictures on my blog) but I was quite pleased with this one for one of my first shots with the 400D:
Brian Auer
February 6, 2009Still having problems with photos coming through. Maybe it’s best to use the link at the bottom of the form to insert the photo and just wrap that inserted code with a link. I think WordPress isn’t happy with the img tags still. We’ll fix it soon — I’m seeking advice from another photography blogger.
Neil Creek
February 6, 2009Try HDR. One commenter above mentioned it, but I wanted to emphasise tonemapping for realism, not effect. Halos and dirty clouds aren’t attractive.
[img]https://farm1.static.flickr.com/221/500738693_4e238a6537_m.jpg[/img]
Shoot landmarks or icons against the sunset. Locals will recognise them and those from elsewhere can discover a beautiful new scene.
[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2150/2155746385_8e8659e30f_m.jpg[/img]
Strobe it. Wait till after the sun has set and use the fading sky as a backdrop for some strobe action.
[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2408/2192596840_d53cc615f7_m.jpg[/img]
Get experimental. I took a full spherical panorama of an iconic church in New Zealand, and remapped it into a “little planet”. Here we can see both the last of the setting sun, and the golden-lit church opposite.
[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3262/2451914586_0c5b66dfd1_m.jpg[/img]
Thanks mate, great post idea and excellent community interaction! Well done 🙂
Wayne
February 6, 2009Wait for the right moment:
[img]https://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/161487825_6637d3072e_m.jpg[/img]
inspirationbit
February 6, 2009Don’t miss the right moment. Here’s the photo of a sunset I shot from the balcony of our condo last year.
We’ve had 4 days of non-stop rain in Vancouver and then all of a sudden the sky has cleared and the sun was shining, just minutes before the sunset. The sky was unbelievably beautiful, see for yourself:
[img]https://farm1.static.flickr.com/222/476126304_b75ec8dfe9_m.jpg[/img]
Brian Auer
February 6, 2009I’m pretty sure I got the image-in-comments thing figured out. So you can either post straight-up html from Flickr or use the link below to add the correct BBCode.
the_wolf_brigade
February 6, 2009Play with perception. Silhouettes work well, but get creative with them by using the +/- exposure control to really bring out the effect in camera:
Steve Berardi
February 6, 2009Great tips! Just one quick one to add: don’t put the horizon in the center–you’re photographing the sunset, so the sky should take up the vast majority of the frame.
Trevor Carpenter
February 6, 2009OK, so here’s a couple. The first one is of the wonderful light cast by a setting sun. The second one I incorporated Jeremy Brooks’ sweet ride, in the shot.
Zig
February 7, 2009Look for the unusual. Sometime certain weather conditions will throw interesting lighting out, even after the sun is below the horizon. For example this shaft of light.
Jeremy Brooks
February 7, 2009And for the exception to the "the sky should take up the majority of the frame" rule, here’s one I took that is mostly railroad tracks and train cars, but with the light of the sunset at the top of the frame and reflected from the tracks.
Antoine Khater
February 7, 2009Wonderful article buddy and the followups are just as great.
I will add my grain of salt to the discussion
Get low pickup a low view point
Do not include the sun specially if you follow your tip "Go Wide" with a wide angle the sun will look just like a small spot in the picture and will loose interest and would rather look like a dust bun or something
Use a foreground as focal point Include an object relatively big in the foreground to serve as the picture’s focal point
Martin
February 7, 2009There’s no need to get the sun in the frame if you’ve got something interesting in the frame….particularly a silhouette against the sunset sky.
Martin Wolf
February 7, 2009Tipp: Why not go vertical?
This photo is a sunrise, but I think sunset and sunrise are very similar.
Devansh
February 7, 2009Hanging around long enough, say about half an hour, after the sun disappears below the horizon gives you the opportunity to take some long exposures, and lets you include some painting with light techniques.
Maureen Bond
February 7, 2009I like the tip about turning around. I’m trying to use this tip with all of my photography outings. As for sunsets and sunrises I like to look for elements if possible for framing. This shot is a sunrise.
Phil Lane
February 7, 2009Silhouettes are a good idea I agree – you can get something stark to stand out against the background.
Also, using a flash is a good ldea to let you balance the subject and the sunset
I think you can get some nice effects.
This is a god topic, with a lot of very good responses.
Eric Gitonga
February 8, 2009Sunset images taken in Zanzibar
[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3517/3261717293_f18b6900b7_m.jpg[/img]
[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3463/3261717289_66ca0ce1dd_m.jpg[/img]
[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3330/3261717287_66a215e1c4_m.jpg[/img]
Jamie
February 8, 2009A great article and some very vailid options for others to consider. I like the way this article forces you to "LOOK OUT OF THE BOX" and consider some other factors.
I guess my effort is a typical cliche 😉
jeff
February 9, 2009I love the sky a half hour or so after sunset, in this image I found something that might be pretty boring during the day, but has a whole different feel in the evening.
This one might be somewhat cliche, but I tried to get silhouette’s of a couple mosque towers along the banks of the Nile, coupled with a relatively wide angle to capture as much of the clouds as possible.
Gary
February 10, 2009I put my tip above, but I as I was reviewing the tips here I wanted to restate how important I think Brian’s #5 is. Turn around is a terrific way to get the out-of-the-box shot, and it is also SO MUCH easier to do, because you don’t get contrast issues and such….
This shot is from a sunrise, but I think its a good example…
Siva
February 12, 2009This is a shot i took some time back from my balcony in Kuala Lumpur. In fact there was a plane passingby during the 30" long shutter. Created a cool streak along the sky.
Dememtrios the traveller
February 12, 2009Greek summer dusk … from my balcony
Stevie G
February 18, 2009These pictures unbelievably cliche. If you want to be a good photographer don’t take pictures of things like sunsets because the idea it self is already cliche. Get original and photograph something nobody has seen before.
Lois Elling
February 20, 2009I’m late to the party, but here’s one thing that I don’t think has been mentioned. Pay attention to the weather. You’ll get more interesting shots when interesting things are happening with the weather. This is an example of a shot of a sunrise while we were having fires in the area. The smoke and smog not only turned the sun redder, but cut down on the light which gave me more time available for shooting into the sun that morning.
Alex
February 27, 2009(sorry for the "spam")
Albert
April 3, 2009Wow the pictures of the sun is just amazing, and the sun sets, so beautiful. Lois, the one with the plant and the sun in the back is just glamorous. I love the feel to it. This is a photo of the only sun we can see with our naked eyes, and look how splendid the photos look.
Nikita Buida
April 9, 2009Another great idea would probably be to use small strobe with umbrella with green filter on the strobe. Of course strobe is used to light a person in the foreground for example. Then (this is for digital) you set your white balance to make person’s face look real not green and whole sunset goes wild with saturated purple colors!
jeremy
May 20, 2009I went for the way the sunlight was caught by the undergrowth, and a little lens flare
Brian Auer
May 25, 2009It’s a double exposure — I moved the camera along the horizon to take the 2nd shot.
Rob F
June 2, 2009Thank you for the informative post… There were several great points that were touched upon. I wanted to add my own submission to the pool. https://www.flickr.com/photos/littlerockphoto/3589065163/
I appreciate the shared knowledge provided by the comments!
Tony Lee
June 17, 2009I favor the “Use props” image, as it gives the photographer more flexibility to add to mother natures beauty.
Great shots!
kevin meredith
November 19, 2009what about the sun rise?
fdtate
January 2, 2010Clouds can add much to a sunset photo. The setting sun’s light is more interesting when it’s bouncing and playing off of available clouds. Much more interesting than a sunset on a picture perfect cloudless day.
