Sunset last night

[sarahA]

Last night we drove up to the coast to grab the sun setting. Gotta say, the sunsets are amazing up here (I can say that, I don't come from here ) I used the 3 scene modes designed for this shot, the sunrise/sunset, dusk/dawn and night landscape, however the latter shots are a lighter than the rest. Don't know if it adds something extra (exposure is a word I want to say but then it may sound like I know what I'm talking about ). I've been told the dusk/dawn setting (the bluer pictures) make the white balance softer, is that right?

Also with taking a silouhette, should I be dropping or increasing the exposure?

Few of the shots I took, more at Flickr

[rutty]

Oddly enough, I was in Cheshire at the weekend for a wedding - Rowton Hall - and they had a copy of Cheshire Life in our room. Not bad toilet reading, but they did have some sunset shots from a local photographer and one of them was of that lighthouse.

Nice shots by the way. I particularly like the one with the reflection in the sea, even if it doesn't obey the "rule of thirds".

Sunsets tend to be underexposed. The sky is significantly brighter than the foreground so you often end up with silhouettes. This is fine if you're after that, but if you compensate without using a filter then you'll find that the sky will become overexposed. You'll need to use graduated filters to correctly expose everything, so unless you have some of those then I'd just let your camera pick - your results are very nice as they are

[sarahA]

Thanks Rutty

What's the rule of thirds? I'm guessing something to do with the amount of each part being in the photo?

[yawner]

all nice, but the second one is luvverly

[sarahA]

Thanks yawner   I've gone for the lighthouse on my desktop tho (for this week...!)

One Mr A gets his new toy I mean DSLR, I'm sure he'll be getting better shots

[sickpuppy]

Thanks Rutty

What's the rule of thirds? I'm guessing something to do with the amount of each part being in the photo?

Basically divide your view into thirds horizontally and vertically. Interesting points in the photo should lie on these lines where possible.

Like all rules you can deliberately break them

[sarahA]

Cheers sickpuppy, I think I get it

So on a sunset photo you'd want the horizon between the bottom and middle horizontal third? I just put the sun in the middle of the photo. I'm presuming my lighthouse one is better as the lighthouse is almost a third in from the left and the horizon is almost a third up from the bottom?

[Jeewhizz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

[rutty]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

That page shows it well - it's a good guide to interesting shot composition, although as Mr Puppy says the rules are there to be broken.

I do find that I prefer off-centre subjects though. They're often more interesting than having your subject dead centre, especially with landscapes

[sarahA]

I'll try and keep that all in mind next time around...

[Notorious MCSE]

Did Hurri get any action given the romantic setting?

[Curry]

Very nice photos indeed.

[sarahA]

Thanks Mr C

[Britman]

Sarah there cracking shots.
The second one is my fav.