do polarizers do anything for sunsets?

[rasheemo]

and should i deliberately underexpose for a sunset?

thanks in advance guys!

 

[KhronoS]

Not really, polarizes are for landscape photos to block reflections from leafs, water, wet rocks, etc.

I might be wrong though.

 

[tirediron]

Polarizers will do nothing for sunset images, except act as a sort of faux neutral-density filter if you want. To get the optimum results from a CPOL, you need to have your lens at 90 degrees to the sun, with the sun low in the sky. The closer you shoot toward the sun, and the higher in the sky it is, the less effect you will see.

 

[Alex_B]

Not really, polarizes are for landscape photos to block reflections from leafs, water, wet rocks, etc.

And for clouds/sky enhancement.


With a sunset it will be quite useless in most cases, since you need a pronounced angle between your light source (the sun) and your optical axis to get any effect with the polariser. Since to shoot a sunset you look more or less right into the sun, that angle will be tiny, the optimum would be 90 degrees though.



As for the exposure question, what doe underexpose mean here? you might have to deviate from your meter's readings, depending where you meter on. If you point the meter at the sun, you will have very different meter readings compared to metering on the surrounding sky or the foreground. hence if you blindly follow your meter reading, you might get very different exposures depending where exactly the camera is pointing.

 

[prodigy2k7]

better colors

 

[Alex_B]

better colors

??

 

[reg]

better colors

You're always one for clarity and detail in your posts.

:roll:

 

[rasheemo]

well to capture a sunset as you see it, would you meter the sky away from the sun and then go back at pointing at the sun? i guess that's what i'm asking, because once i tried to photograph the moons reflection over the ocean and it was way too bright and i couldn't capture it as i saw it.

 

[TamiyaGuy]

It's actually very difficult to capture a sunset "as you see it", as a camera has much less dynamic range than your eye. What this means is that those dark green trees you see in the background will be completely black when recorded on your camera's sensor (if you meter for the sun), and that beautiful red sunset will be almost completely white if you meter for the trees.

Basically, you can't capture a sunset exactly as you see it, but I would switch to Center-Weighted metering, and meter for the sky. If you want to recompose, be sure to exposure-lock the sky first. Hopefully, it will come out OK. Best of luck!