Photographing Sunsets and Sunrises

Left Image: Minolta Maxxum 9000, Tokina 80-200mm f-2.8 ATX lens, Fuji Velvia 50, Bogen tripod and pan/tilt head. Centerweighted  metering and +1 exposure compensation, shutter speed not recorded, f-8 on aperture priority manual focus.

Many people have problems photographing sunrises and sunsets. Exposure seems to be the main difficulty. It is really much easier than you think.

All exposure meters want to make the whole scene as medium tone (see Exposure). Knowing this and working in stops will make calculating exposure much easier. There are several ways to photograph sunsets and sunrises and the same rule applies to both. One way is to meter part of the sky using your spot meter or a long telephoto lens and decide whether you want to place it as medium, lighter, or darker, and adjust exposure accordingly. Generally you would want to open up one stop from your meter reading. For example, If your meter suggests 1/8 sec at f-5.6 you would set your meter to 1/4 sec at f-5.6. Another way to get proper exposure is by excluding the sun by swinging your lens to one side. Take a reading, lock exposure, and swing the camera back to your original setting with the sun included and take the picture.

Right Image: Canon EOS D30, Tamron 70-210mm f-2.8 lens, 1/125 at f-11, Bogen tripod and ballhead.


You can use the manual exposure for this technique or auto exposure mode with the AE lock. If you take a reading with the ball of sun included in the composition, your final picture will be underexposed as the sun can fool the meter by several stops.

Be ready with your camera and lens set on your tripod well in advance. Pick a spot and compose your picture and wait for the sunrise or the sunset. Stay a little longer after the sun has gone down as the changing light can produce some excellent photographs. Try different focal length lenses. Moderate telephotos are great for including foreground objects silhouetted against the sky while longer telephotos will give huge suns.