Photowalk 12 - Lee On Solent Sunset

It had been raining all day, the weather only clearing up in the late afternoon. As I was sitting in the Garden with my better half, I noticed the really high clouds, with nice clear parts in-between, and the Sun poking through. Realising that these were the ingredients for a great Sunset, I waited until the sky was getting towards Dusk, then jumped in the car and headed to the coast.

This was a great Sunset. I guess what I mean is that it turned into a great Sunset. When I got to the beach about 20 minutes before the Sun dropped below the horizon, it was an OK view, but nothing mind blowing, so I set up my tripod and started snapping away. As the Sun dropped, something magical happened. The whole sky started to light up with these fantastic colours, the high clouds became bathed in gorgeous red light, with deeper blues beyond. It was breath-taking. I shot 183 frames, no honestly. I just couldn't believe the colours that were opening up before my eyes.

I've only included three final images - to be honest my main PC died a few days ago some I'm relying on my sons desktop, and my really old Vectra VL - both grossly under powered, which means Photoshop takes ages to edit these images, I'll be adding to the set when I get a new, faster PC.

(Please click on the images to go to Flickr and see the larger versions.)

This was my first pano of the evening. The Sun was still well above the horizon. When taking Panoramas, I set my camera to manual mode, set the exposure from the sky near the Sun, take a few test shots, then stick the camera on the tripod in portrait mode. By using manual mode the exposure for the whole Pano should be the same. Photoshop CS3 then has no problems stitching it all together, then I just add more contrast and colour, sharpening and noise reduction.

The Sun had disappeared at this point - but these fantastic colours were everywhere. I don't know how I go the horizon wrong, I'm sure it lined up in Photoshop, something to correct when I have some time. A lesson learned is that I should spend more diligence lining up my photos.

This one's a three shot pano - again I don't think the horizon is too straight, again taken in portrait and manual mode. What a beautiful Dusk it was.

Watching the way the light changed over the course of about half an hour really opened my eyes to shooting after the Sun has disappeared. There were two big opportunities I missed - taking some shots of the light reflecting in the windows of the houses, and more importantly getting some shots with people more prominently playing a role. The couple on the beach would have made an excellent silhouette if I had got closer, and I chatted with a lady walking her dog, so should have asked to take her picture. Next time!

Cheers, Rob.