mgarza Loc: California

Hello everyone, i have a Nikon D3100 & would like to know what the best settings are to shoot a sunset. Tonight the sun was a very bright red, I have never seen it look more beautiful so of course i ran to get my camera & just started shooting without changing my settings & the attached pic is what I ended up with. I want to be able to capture the sun as it looked in person. In this pic the sky looks red not the sun. Tomorrow I plan to take my tripod with me & drive to a good location instead of viewing it from my backyard. Any advice is welcome. Thank you

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

Pick up a copy of Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure".

MikeT9

Great, you’ll be using a tripod good start. Switch to manual and select an aperture say f/11, f/13. It’s on a tripod so set ISO to 100. All you need to do now is get the shutter speed right. If you go by the meter you won’t get what you see, you need to increase the speed until you get what you see. Simples.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

To elaborate a little on tradio's recommendation: once you understand the basics of exposure, you will have the tools you need to face most any lighting situation. And you will have learned what to try next, when you view that first shot in playback and find the exposure lacking. MikeT has offered a starting point, but you still need to know why those settings were offered. I'm sure you don't want to keep running to a photo forum for a good-for-one-time-only answer

In this particular case, there may also be dynamic range issues (you can Google the term). While there may be gorgeous color around the sun, the sun itself may have been too bright to capture, even with adjusted settings. In fact, though it's difficult to tell for sure, your silhouetted foreground and edges of sunset in the pic above suggest that could be exactly the issue. Any setting change for darker exposure would render the blue edges of your sky black.

When that happens (the sun's core too bright to photograph), you can make it smaller in your frame if you have wider focal lengths to choose from, or move it out of center for possibly a more pleasing composition. Or just enjoy the bright white, knowing you did all you could, given the conditions at that moment.

Best wishes on your journey!

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Sounds like you are the only one who provided an immediate answer. The guy who mentioned the book about exposure is right for future sunsets. I don't think the women understood the urgency. She just offered...what??

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Immediate? Urgency? The sunset the OP photographed was long gone by the time Mike posted his suggested settings

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

A pretty good explanation of what to think about when shooting that sunset!

TonyF Loc: Bradenton, FL

traderjohn Loc: New York City

He didn't inquire about what he should be thinking about. A simple answer was what he was looking for. Not the level of self-importance of a responder.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Sounds like you are in favor of a single concise reply, and then what - lock the thread? I agree that posting the same answers over and over again in a thread is unhelpful (though extensively practiced on UHH), but expanding on information surely is not a waste of time. The dynamic range issue I mentioned could very well come into play tonight. We don't want the OP to be cursing Mike for steering him wrong if his image just gets blacker and blacker while the sun remains a white blob in the middle

We don't know anything about the OP other than that he/she was motivated to seek out a photo forum, create a user account, and figure out how to post not only a topic, but a photo - something many experienced users here have trouble with. Encouraging someone to learn a foundation of basic skills is what I intend to keep doing in these kinds of threads, so I'm afraid you'll just have to learn to live with me.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Depending on how bright the sun is at the time, you might also want to experiment with spot metering on the sun. Averaging metering will probably blowout the sun.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Your main problem is that, in your own words, you just started shooting without changing your settings. It is very simple to bracket your exposures, and then you will begin to get a handle on how exposure works.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

I am glad you have lit the guiding light. Sometimes a simple answer solves the immediate problem. You can be the guiding light perhaps another time.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Have a happy, productive day!

markmmmm

use automatic. easy, peasy, and usually accurate.