The poetry of the earth is never dead.

A Picture I took, while I was in Calcutta(2011).

Calcutta 2011

That Sunset

If you like taking sunset photos, you’re not alone. Many photographers I know love to take shots of sunsets. Perhaps its because they imbue a sense of peace in us.
Perhaps they’re a challenge to take given the small time window during which the sun sets.

You need to be very attentive and fire off many shots during the few seconds the sun goes down. It is also useful to apply multiple exposure settings in these kind of shots.
This article will show you some tips for shooting beautiful sunset photos.

Tip 1: Get a Full View

When shooting sunsets, it’s important to position yourself so that you get a full view of the sunset. An example is to perch yourself on a high point. Another good idea is to catch the sun reflecting off water. I also like to photograph the sun setting between the leaves of trees. Think about different, creative ways of viewing a sunset. It will help enhance the beauty of your shots.

Tip 2: Keep Shooting

Here’s another tip for shooting sunset photos. Keep shooting! This is very important because there is only a small time window during which the sun sets. Get in as many shots as you can and select the best. With practice, your sunset photos will start looking better and better.

Tip 3: Clouds

When shooting sunset photos, clouds make a nice backdrop. Clouds add color and texture to an otherwise uninteresting photo. Try to look for cloudy skies to add more variety and texture to your photos.


Tip 4: Shooting Off-Center
Another tip I recommend is to shoot the sun off-center. It’s not essential to keep the sun right in the center of the photo. You can position the horizon at bottom of the frame, so that you can highlight the sky, or perhaps focus on a subject in the foreground. Try this, you can get many interesting silhouette effects.


Tip 5: Use Multiple Exposure Settings
A good thing to try is to use multiple exposure settings. I use a technique called bracketing (which simply means shooting the same picture at different exposures) to get the best shot. If the picture is too bright, underexpose it and vice versa. To bring out details of a person in the foreground, try using the fill flash or night mode. Experimenting with exposure is very important for getting the best looking sunset photos.



Tip 6: Zoom In
Always bring along a telephoto lens when shooting sunsets. That way, if you suddenly have an urge to make the sun larger and more impressive, you can simply zoom in. Some of the best shots of sunsets I’ve seen are done with long focal lengths in this manner.


Conclusion

Sunset photos are a pleasure to take. However, they do pose challenges that are unique. Exposure settings can be tricky, and there is a limited time window to take your shots. Try to apply the above tips in your next sunset photo shoots – I’m sure you’ll start getting better results. Happy shooting!

Depth of Field

From Wiki,


In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance at a time, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions.

In some cases, it may be desirable to have the entire image sharp, and a large DOF is appropriate. In other cases, a small DOF may be more effective, emphasizing the subject while de-emphasizing the foreground and background. In cinematography, a large DOF is often called deep focus, and a small DOF is often called shallow focus.

The DOF is determined by the camera-to-subject distance, the lens focal length, the lens f-number, and the format size or circle of confusion criterion.

For a given format size, at moderate subject distances, DOF is approximately determined by the subject magnification and the lens f-number. For a given f-number, increasing the magnification, either by moving closer to the subject or using a lens of greater focal length, decreases the DOF; decreasing magnification increases DOF. For a given subject magnification, increasing the f-number (decreasing the aperture diameter) increases the DOF; decreasing f-number decreases DOF.

When the “same picture” is taken in two different format sizes from the same distance at the same f-number with lenses that give the same angle of view, and the final images (e.g., in prints, or on a projection screen or electronic display) are the same size, the smaller format has greater DOF.

Many small-format digital SLR camera systems allow using many of the same lenses on both full-frame and “cropped format” cameras. If the subject distance is adjusted to provide the same field of view at the subject, at the same f-number and final-image size, the smaller format has greater DOF, as with the “same picture” comparison above. If pictures are taken from the same distance using the same f-number, and the final images are the same size, the smaller format has less DOF. If pictures taken from the same subject distance are given the same enlargement, both final images will have the same DOF. The final images will, of course, have different sizes.

Cropping an image and enlarging to the same size final image as an uncropped image taken under the same conditions is equivalent to using a smaller format under the same conditions, so the cropped image has less DOF.

When focus is set to the hyperfocal distance, the DOF extends from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity, and the DOF is the largest possible for a given f-number.

The advent of digital technology in photography has provided additional means of controlling the extent of image sharpness; some methods allow extended DOF that would be impossible with traditional techniques, and some allow the DOF to be determined after the image is made.


Combined by,
Shahnawaz
Hope you find it helpful.