Freo Graphic

November 2020 FREO GRAPHIC 4 Bracketing is a great way to play around with exposure. Many cameras have an auto bracketing feature that will take three images at the same shutter speed but at different apertures to get you three photos at different exposures. If your camera doesn’t have that feature, you can manually bracket the exposures by adjusting the aperture yourself. For example, if your camera thinks the ideal exposure is 1/30th of a second at f/5.6, you’d take an image at that setting, then at 1/30th of a second at f/3.5 and again at f/8. If bracketing seems like too much trouble, you can also use your camera’s auto exposure lock to work on the exposure. Simply point your camera at a darker area of the scene, then recompose the image as you want it. Having locked the exposure on a darker area will mean a sunset image that is on the overexposed side, which might be nice if there are areas of foreground interest that you want visible in the image. On the other hand, you can also lock exposure on a bright area of the scene, reframe the shot, and get an underexposed image. This might be a better situation if there are elements of the scene that will make nice silhouettes. Get Out of Auto! If you leave your camera in auto white balance, the resulting images of the sunset will be less colourful than you like - the image will lack a lot of the warmth from the golden and orange tones in the sunset. Instead, switch to cloudy or shade mode. Doing so is usually reserved for lighting situations in which cooler tones prevail. However, because cloudy and shade modes warm up the image, using them at sunset will help you capitalize on the warmth of the tones present in the sunset. Additionally, many photographers fail at sunset shots because they forget to take their lens out of autofocus mode. Despite all the advances in AF systems, they can still struggle to find the right focus when presented with rather extreme lighting conditions. If you want the sharpest shots, switch to manual focus and rely on your eyes - not the camera - to get everything tack-sharp. For the best results, take your camera out of fully automatic mode in favour of shooting in aperture priority, shutter priority, or full manual. Having that extra level of control over your camera settings will get you better results. If you’re new to photography or shooting sunsets, or simply aren’t comfortable in full manual mode, try shutter priority with a relatively fast shutter speed, then slow the shutter down as the sun sets and the light fades. EDUCATION EXTRA