JD750 Loc: SoCal

R.G. posted a nice quiet sunset the other day.

We were chatting and I opined that Subtle Sunsets are more difficult than the blaze of glory versions. We thought it would be fun to start a Subtle Sunsets thread and Invite everyone to contribute.

I will start by posting one of mine. Everyone is invited to contribute.

R.G.'s sunset is at: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-786386-1.html

Sunset over LA

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R.G. Loc: Scotland

To my mind the revealing thing to do is to consider the editing given to subtle sunsets and compare it to the editing given to "blaze of glory" sunsets. In reality sunsets (and sunrises) can be incredibly vivid and you would have to be going some to overcook them to the point where they are unfeasibly vivid. Because of that the vivid sunsets can take a lot of contrast and saturation.

But if you do that to the subtle sunsets you will lose the subtleness. However, even subtle sunsets can benefit from some contrast and saturation. In my experience the difference is mainly in the extremes of brightness levels. With the subtle sunsets you don't want the highlights becoming too harsh and you don't want the darks becoming too dark and solid. If you can add moderate amounts of contrast while mitigating the unwanted effects on the highlights and shadows you can enhance the photo while retaining the subtleness. That would involve lowering the Whites/Highlights and lifting the Blacks/Shadows. Doing that causes a loss of contrast, but with subtle sunsets that's OK. If you added moderate amounts of Contrast to begin with you will keep the improvements in the mid tones.

Where saturation is concerned, a common effect that I see is that the orange and yellow parts of the sky end up looking too solid and mustardy. Lowering the highlights and brightness in general can make a sunset look more dramatic but it often has the effect just described, and that will be exaggerated if a lot of extra saturation is added. Red can also be a problem if it becomes too dark, solid and oversaturated. My answer is to add a moderate amount of saturation first and then use the HSL tool to keep the reds, oranges and yellows from becoming too dark and too saturated.

A similar effect can happen with the dark blue areas of clouds. Lightening, desaturating and reducing contrast for those areas can alleviate that problem and keep the clouds looking more natural. Skies usually benefit from lowering the highlights and possibly adding Dehaze, but if those measures result in the dark parts of clouds looking too dense and solid, that effect needs to be mitigated. Too much contrast can have a similar unwanted effect.

It may seem counterintuitive to desaturate the most dramatic part of a sunset but the overall effect will be to keep things looking natural. And increasing brightness is a relatively unintrusive way to keep the sunset vivid. If you brighten first you will be able to minimise the amount of desaturation required.

If the HSL tool on its own can't achieve those effects I will resort to brushwork to make extra adjustments to the problem areas.

I described those measures as a way to keep the subtlety in subtle sunsets but they can also be used as mitigating techniques in "blaze of glory" sunsets, allowing you to push your main adjustments further.

Where Clarity adjustments are concerned I tend to keep them till near the end of the editing process and add them in the form of minor tweaks. In fact with a subtle sunset it might be worth trying some negative Clarity (going left with the slider) to see what sort of softening effect it has and to see if it's desirable or not.
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Low contrast and nothing extreme.

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AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Some may not call this subtle, but it is compared to most of our sunsets. It was shot through my sliding door (which isn't very clean) with my cell phone. I haven't done anything to it.

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R.G. Loc: Scotland

It doesn't need much, if anything. The yellow parts are exactly what can end up looking unnatural if you give them the wrong adjustments. Subtle mixes and gradations of colour can easily be lost with the wrong adjustments. Sometimes the best treatment is to leave it alone.

Raw files always come with a naturalness that can quickly be lost. I try to compare my edits to the originals just to make sure I haven't lost too much of the original naturalness. If I have I'll ease off with my adjustments. That's just my take. Some people prefer the ramped up look regardless of how much realism has been lost.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Since this was a cellphone shot, I haven't bothered with anything. I just thought the sky was pretty that night. I guess I should send it over to my desktop so that I can look at it more closely.

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

I took this sunset shot while in Kanapali a few years ago. Never gave it much though until today when I began looking thru the files for a “subtle sunset”. Just a bit of cropping and light touches in brilliance, highlights, contrast and black point.

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JD750 Loc: SoCal

That’s reality nice! Well done. Lots of good things goin on in that composition. I love the splash of sunlight on the crest of the wave! Thank you for sharing.

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

Thanks. That splash was what caught my eye when I was looking through the photo files.

Mike D. Loc: Crowley County, CO.

Just stuff from the phone. I would have to dig for something better.

It’s fairly subtle although I could have darkened the foreground some but I munchkins are hungry.

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Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

magnetoman Loc: Purbeck, Dorset, UK

Well, you know me JD, it has to be a composite - but the sunset is across our local Poole Harbour whilst on the way to catch a ferry home, and has not been dramatically altered. RG did pull me up on a couple of compositing faults when first posted I seem to recall, but we're still friends! It's about as subtle as I get.

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