Sunset on my neighbors farm

[CmazzJK]

I have been getting some sweet sunsets in my neck of the woods, unfortunately I don't feel like my T3 ISO/kit lens(my excuse for my poor photography skills) are up to the task of capturing the awesomeness of them but I try so here it is. This is taken over my neighbors corn field. I have been working with RAW files and am trying to get used to the difference from JPEG.



ISO 100/24mm at F11/ 1/160th sec.

 

[JTPhotography]

Extremely underexposed. This is typically what you'll get on shooting a sunset in automatic, regardless of jpeg or raw, the camera will fail, that's just the way it is. Digital cameras are nowhere near as good as your eye at picking up all the details in the many ranges of light that you'll see in a sunset/sunrise. High contrast sunset scenes are some of the most difficult to shoot but yet it is what most beginners want to shoot, thus the frustration. There are many techniques you could use to make a shot like this work but without an understanding of the basics of exposure, they may not make sense. I recommend starting with some books shutter speed, aperture, ISO and basic lighting in regards to landscape photography and you'll be on your way. Though be warned, it is a long journey.

 

[Designer]

Yes, it's underexposed, but good eye in seeing the contrails.

 

[Derrel]

The single biggest issue with the photo posted is that the bottom 40% of the frame has almost zero visual interest. The sky and clouds and contrails forming into clouds are all nice, but the black area needs to be replaced by a foreground object of visual interest. Look for "something" to provide visual interest in the foreground. A tree, for example, to silhouette against the sky. Or firing a flash to illuminate the foreground even a little bit. A barn or building or roofline...anything that we could "see", paired against the sunset, would help.

Some locations, ones with lots of cool foreground shapes, make sunset foreground objects EASY to find: for example, areas with a big, high bridge, or boat basins with lots of tall-masted sailboats, are two classic, almost cliche subjects where there are strong foreground subjects that are easy to silhouette against the sunset. In this cornfield, there are no bridges and no sailboats, but even getting realllllly close to that pair ofd trees off to the left, and shooting with them tall and clear in the foreground, would have made the shot much more interesting.

 

[CmazzJK]

The single biggest issue with the photo posted is that the bottom 40% of the frame has almost zero visual interest. The sky and clouds and contrails forming into clouds are all nice, but the black area needs to be replaced by a foreground object of visual interest. Look for "something" to provide visual interest in the foreground. A tree, for example, to silhouette against the sky. Or firing a flash to illuminate the foreground even a little bit. A barn or building or roofline...anything that we could "see", paired against the sunset, would help.

Some locations, ones with lots of cool foreground shapes, make sunset foreground objects EASY to find: for example, areas with a big, high bridge, or boat basins with lots of tall-masted sailboats, are two classic, almost cliche subjects where there are strong foreground subjects that are easy to silhouette against the sunset. In this cornfield, there are no bridges and no sailboats, but even getting realllllly close to that pair ofd trees off to the left, and shooting with them tall and clear in the foreground, would have made the shot much more interesting.

These are some good ideas thanks