Sunset Canvas prints make stunning centre pieces on any wall. CanvasDesign have been printing your photos as Sunset Canvas Prints for over 10 years now. We have the most vibrant printers available to ensure all your colours are captured perfectly.
Sunsets make for a beautiful view, so naturally they are an ideal subject for landscape photography. These gorgeous visages present their own unique challenges, however, and getting the perfect sunset shot can take a bit of special preparation. Take a look at the following tips, and I’m sure your next sunset photo shoot will yield amazing results!
Assemble Your Gear
Sunset photos can be tricky. You’ll find that it’s difficult to expose for both the landscape in the foreground and the sky above. This is why I recommend one piece of specialized gear for this shoot: a Neutral Density Graduated Filter. This type of filter will go a long way towards balancing all of the elements in your sunset composition. As far as glass goes, you’ll get great results with a 18-24mm lens.
Another great little trick, but requires a tripod is to shoot foreground and background and different setting. You can then merge both photos to get the perfect result. Some photographers see this as cheating, but if you have a stunning sunset and are wishing to get some products made of your shot, this sometimes can be the only solution.
Prepare Your Camera’s Settings
The intense lighting effects of a sunset are nice to look at, but can be confusing for a camera. The right settings are critical to capturing the “real” colors in the sky.
• ISO: <100
• Aperture f/16
• Daylight white balance
• Manual exposure mode
• Manual focus mode
• Affix your Graduated filter*
* If you don’t have the right filter, you can take two shots – one exposure for the foreground and one for the sky – and combine them in Photoshop.
Kick Things Up in Post
As I said before, the inherent challenge with sunsets involves getting detail in both the sky and the foreground. That’s why I mentioned the graduated neutral density filter, but even using the filter doesn’t always produce the right results.
I recommended shooting in RAW because of the tools available in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) in Photoshop – tools that we’re going to put to use on your sunset photo. Open your image in ACR and let’s get started:
We’ll begin by setting your white balance to suit the sky. Natural looking sunsets work well around 5,500K. Increase the slider towards the 6,000K range for a warmer look.
Saturate the image slightly. Try a setting around +15 to avoid oversaturating the sun’s natural colors.
Now we can add a graduated filter (software style) with a click of the ACR toolbar. After selecting the Graduated Filter tool, click the bottom of the image and drag to the top. This applies the filter in the proper direction to suit a sunset.
We hope that this short manual has helped anyone that is involved or interested in sunset photography. If you want to order sunset canvas prints of your most favourite sunset scene, get in touch or order today.
At Canvasdesign we only ever use the best products for manufacturing your sunset canvas prints. 300gsm canvas as well as solid pine bars are the backbone of our quality canvas prints. All our Epson printers are callibrated every week to ensure the most faithful, rich colours are reproduced on your sunset photo. If all of this is not enough, add additional vibrance and protection with a Giclee Varnish. Your Sunset Canvas will be at least 10% deeper in colour and it will never get damaged or marked with the protective coating applied.