Photography-sunsets

Everybody knows how satisfying it is to see a really beautiful sunset. It is satisfying to photograph one, too, and a good sunset picture is the easiest of all to take. The light as the sun sets is very red because its rays have to travel through a great deal of the earth's atmosphere, and they love much of their blue content on the process. Water makes and ideal foreground for pictures of the setting sun. Foreground water-the sea, or a lake-will enhance the beauty of a good sunset. But in their absence look for some foreground shape which will make an interesting pattern in silhouette. It is always worth taking several pictures of a sunset, at different exposures. Each one will give us a result, but they will vary in darkness, or strength of tone. Remember that there is a huge range of contrast when the sun is going down, with the blazing globe itself enormously bright and some parts of the foreground in near blackness; for this reason all sunset pictures are compromises-they are all somewhat impressionistic. But by experimenting with different exposures we will be able to throw more emphasis on to the brightly lit clouds or on to the dimly lit landscape just as we please.