Best Camera Settings for Sunrise and Sunset est camera settings for sunrise and sunset? Do: ning landscapes? Get Presets Now! BEST CAMERA SETTINGS FOR D everyting you need to Best Camera Settings for Sunrise and Sunsets perture Priority (AV, A) Why Sunrise and Sunset Is the Best Time for Landscape PhotographyBut why are sunise and sunset ~ also known as the golden hours ~ so special for photography? Forane, the golden hours just look incredible thanks to the fecuent sky drama the low sun. ete ‘But the quality of early momning and late aftemoon light is azo bette for photography. It has to o withthe cstance sunlight travel t midday versus sunise/sunset. A midday sunbeam travels straight down, passing through around 11 miles of Earth’ atmosphere before hiting your subject Whereas a sunrise or sunset sunbeam comes at your subject froma lw angle ravling though 200 miles of atmosphere. GOLDEN HOUR for landscape photographers [SUN AT SUNRISE OR SUNSET. at www. PhotoTraces.com | em photgroph This matters because the atmosphere filter and diffuses the ight While you can read more about golden hour light in another arcle know that the ftering and diffusion process produces light thats both sft and warm, And soft, warm light? It looks ineredbe in landscape photos Main Challenges of Shooting Sunrises and Sunsets ‘While sunrises and sunsets offer gorgeous landscape photography opportunities, theyre not slays the easiest ta photograph, Here are the two main challenges faced by landecape photographers 1. Balancing an ultra-bright sky with a dark foreground 2. Maintaining an optimal exposure asthe light changes The fist challenge - balancing your exposure — can be managed but requires precise camera settings. You can azo use a bracketing technique, a discuss below. The second challange ie more dificult to addres. You need to master several diferent exposure techniques and be ready to adjust your settings wth the changing light For instance, shooting uring the brighter part ofthe golden hours ~ tthe beginning of sunset and at te end of sunrise ~ requires you to manage significant contrast, Wheress shooting during the darker part ofthe golden hours ~ a the end of sunset and atthe beginning of sunrise ~ requires an Understanding of pit ahotogranhy setingsSunrise vs Sunset Photography 1s to exposure and focusing, sunrise and sunset are identical the ight just proceed in citer Homever there are practical advantages to shooting at sunise or at sunset sky, oF if youre lucky! ~ you might end up with someSunset Photography Advantages vs tru that sunrise offers more compostional lexilty, bu azo comes with a major problem: Yau have to hesd outin the dark. And you often nad to compose in the dark tonal your fi ‘You can ty to find compositions inthe dark but ts pretty tough. So youl either need to shoot bind forthe first few minutes of cunrze and risk missing out an incredible images - or yout need to scout days in advance, which can be inconvenient or impossible, depending on the Thats wheve sunset photography comes in. Because you have al afternoon to find and fine-tune your compositions, and you don have to wory about stumbling around in the dark, Als, sunset skies can be more dramatic compared to sunrise skies, pls ~ and fr some Photographers, this isa big one - you get to slep! How to Set Your Camera for Sunrises and Sunsets So youve reached 2 sunrise or sunset location, What now? How should you approach the shot? A Tripod Is Essential Landscape photography is generally best done at narow apertures And the narrower the aperture, the longer youl ned to make your shutter speed - which require a tripod for sharp shots Toward the beginning of sunset and atthe end of sunrise you might beable to get away with handheld shooting, especialy fyour camera or lens has image stabilzation. But you'l stil want teahave a tripod on hand for when the un get ow inthe sy. Always Shoot in RAW (orlandscape phatagraphy settings more generally, RAW isthe way to go. ‘As discussed in our in-denth article on the subject, RAW offers the most e captures the broadest dynamic range (which is = huge esl when ahotographing high dnAso, f you shootin RAW, you don't have to wory about the white Balance, ust set itto Auto and deal with tin post-processing. You wan't lose any quality, and its one less thing to think about when shooting, Carefully Set Your Exposure These days, is easy to expose with a 100 percent success rate — where you capture masirnum etal with 2er0 clipped highlights or shadows Here's how: 1. Set Camera to Aperture Priority Mode First setyour camera to neste Pritty mode. You cn choose the aperture and ISO, your camera will choose the shutter speed, and you'l beable to adjust your sults via the Exposure Compensation da 2. Lock Exposure "Nex, point your camera toward the scene you want to photograph. Press the AE button t lock 3. Activate Histogram Bring up the histogram on your LCD or EVE. 4, Use Exposure Compensation Then slowly boost the exposure (with the Exposure Compensation dal unt the image s 35 bright as posible without clipping any highlights This il reduce nase while maintaining maximum detail Then take your shot 5. Adjust Exposure During Post Processing But don't be concemed fit oaks overexposed. You'l simply need to reduce the exposure during post-processing. and you'll end up with «high-quality result! The technique | use i also known as “Exposure to the Right!Optional Setting: Auto Exposure Bracketing Sunrise and sunset scenes tend to feature inte se highlights and shadows, which can exceed the dynamic range of your camera sensor and lead to coping - no matter how eareuly you flow ‘the recommendations given above. ‘So when you pull up the histogram, you se clipping in both the highlights and shadows switch your camera over to Auta Exposure Bracketing, When you get back home, you can da an HOR merge in Lightoom Set Your Focus and Aperture to Maximize Depth of Field In landscape photography, a deep depth of field is essential you generally want the foreground, the midground, and the background sharp with 270 ut-of focus areas, But how do you do this? By following tree guidelines 1. Select the right aperture 2 Focus in the right place 2. Use a wide-angle focal length Let's go over each intr ‘The Best Aperture for Shooting Sunrises and Sunsets Remember: Narrower apertures produce a deeper depth of fel which is what you want in landscape ‘And you should alzo maximize image quality by keeping the aperture in your lene’ weet spot (as explained in this article. So fr sunvises and sunsets, youll want to Keep your aperture in the 8 to 1/13 range. It combines deep depth of field and top-notch image quality fr gorgeous results Focus SettingsBy focusing the perect distance nta the scene, you can matimize depth of eld to keep every pa of your phote sharp. \We recommenc! using single-point autofocus, but switch your camera over to hack:button focus that way, you can adjust focus ad fire the shutter independently Then, put your focus point one-third ofthe way into the scene. Assuming you've chosen a sufficiently narrow aperture this will get you foreground:-to-background sharpness about 90% of For scenes requiring even greater accuracy you can use the hyperocal distance a complex but highly useful concept, (Note thet you won't nee to carry a chart or use an app to calculate the hyperfocal distance Instead, just memorize distance values for your main wide-angle lens. and you'll be good to ga) Use Wide-Angle Lenses ‘The wider your focal length the deeper the depth of el So while you can use any foal length for sunrise and sunset photography, we recommend going with 2 wide-angle lens (nthe 10-20"mm range on APS-C cameras and the 15-30mm range on full-rarne cameras), Conclusion Let's summarize the best setting for shooting sunrises and sunsets 1. Scout the location, You can scout the sunset location on the same day of shooting. Yo scout the sunrige location you need to do itn advance 2. Use a sturdy tripod. 5. Shoot in RAW format, 4 Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode, 5. Use base 150 west possible6, Use the histogram to evaluate exposure (do not tus LCD oF your own eye Practice the "Exposure to the Right” techique for getting the perfect exposure with eve 8 Set autofocus to Single-point AF 9, Focus one-third into the scene to maximize depth of field. Uimatey you can use advanced technique, “hypertocal distance not have to worry about White Balance because it an be Use wide-angle lenses. Choosing the best camera settings for sunrise and sunset photography might seem alfcut, bu By following the recommendations we've given, youll consistently all your exposure and focu By Viktor Elizarov ana travel photographer and educator from Montiel Canad, and founder Photolraces | travel around the world an share my experiences here. Feel ree to check ny Travel Peto an download Fee Lightroom Presets