Sunrises and sunsets are cornerstone images for the landscape photographer, presenting opportunities to showcase fantastic scenes in the favorable soft light of the early morning or late evening. The following tips help guide you through successful sunrise and sunset photography from start to finish.
Mads Peter Iversen shares an entire workflow for photographing sunrises and sunsets in his most recent video. There are many elements to consider as you prepare to photograph an early morning sunrise or late evening sunset—much more than just showing up at a spot just before the sun rises or sets.
Iversen starts with the importance of scouting your location ahead of time and arriving early to capture the golden light. Composition is a key piece, and Iversen reviews several basic compositional considerations to help make your photographs stand out from the crowd of sunrise and sunset photos.
Iversen also reviews the dynamic range challenges of photographing these scenes. He talks about using the histogram on your camera to help determine if you can capture the image in one photograph or if you will need to capture several images with different exposures to blend in post-processing.
Iversen concludes the video with a high-level look at basic post-processing to bring your photograph to life. From the basic edits on a single image to merging multiple images together for a well-exposed image, Iversen offers several tips for your editing to complete the process.
As popular as sunrises and sunsets are with landscape photographers, this video was a welcome refresher on having the most success from start to finish. For me, the reminder of the importance of a strong composition and not just relying on soft light and colorful clouds is a key takeaway from the video.
