My second try at a sunset

[Montana]

Would it be better to wait until the sun is completely down? Is it less appealing this way? C&C please, I am trying to figure this out. LOL

Derrick

 

[saltface]

If you were to take it right after the sun dropped under the horizon, that beautiful green would stand out more, but you'd lose any primary focus in your composition.

 

[D-50]

May be nice to see what it looks like with the sun behind the mountain. I think the sillouette would be nice. Next time your out stay until the sun is completely gone. The twenty minutes after sun down can create very interesting skys.

 

[LaFoto]

To my mind, this particular photo needed the sun to be there. Like saltface is saying: without it, your primary focus would have gone and you'd have needed to go look for another one.

Maybe you did stay on and have taken photos before and after the sun had disappeared? Are there any other you might want to share?

And it's right: the sky can show very nice and interesting colours and patterns after the sun's disappeared.

 

[JHF Photography]

It looks like a beautiful spot to take sunset pics, that's for sure! Something that would have helped improve the pic would be to use a graduated neutral density filter, which would have brought the sky and the foreground to the (relatively) same exposure, bringing out that beautiful rolling countryside.

Another method around that would work (the poor man's version - the one I use right now, lol) is to take take multiple exposures and combine them into an HDR.

I do like the picture with the sun in the pic, as has been mentioned your focal point would be gone if the sun wasn't there.