Welcome to PROJECT 52-7 for the year 2015.
PROJECT 52-7-17-Landscape - Sunset
Images for Project 52-7-17 are to be taken between the 27 April 2015 Tuesday and 04 May 2015.
Rules
1. Anyone and everyone interested in the challenge is eligible. The goal continues to be have fun and share comments, concepts, insights, and techniques
with fellow Pentaxians.
2. Each week will feature a Theme and Sub-concept for you to explore.
3. Post your single picture in Project 52-7 thread for the week. Explain what motivated you to take the picture and/or how you feel it represents the weekly
theme.
4. Some post-processing is OK (adjusting white balance, exposure, color saturation), but let's try to stay away from heavily PP'ed images here. Try to
keep the creativity to photographic techniques and the captures themselves.
5. Since this project is about technique, and not camera, shots taken by non Pentax cameras are allowed.Cameras may be SLRs, DSLRs, Point & Shoot,
Medium Format, et cetera.
6. There is one “Theme Concept” labeled “black and white,” but feel free to post black and white, sepia, monotone, etc., for any of the other themes.
7. The picture you post should be taken during the week in which the theme is active to be eligible for judging.
8. Any picture taken from thread start date to listed closing date is acceptable. You may request to submit a photo outside of the time frame, but its
acceptance is dependent on the judge of the week. Please try and keep to within a day or two (either way) of the week. This is to make allowances for
those that would like to participate, but for one or other reason, are not able to do so during the time given for the challenge, such as illness, weather,
travelling etc.
9. The WINNER of each weekly challenge is the JUDGE of the next week's Project 52-7
10. JUDGE may participate the challenge, but the picture of JUDGE will be comment by 2nd and 3rd WINNER, and there is no podium place for JUDGE's picture. *** New Rules ***
11. The Facilitator (in this case scomatic) may participate in the challenge, provided he/she is not the judge.
12. Closing date for the challenge is Monday at midnight in your time zone, this will encourage people to snap the picture during weekend and post it up on next days. Late entries are accepted but subject to the acceptance by the current weeks JUDGE. ** Amendment **
JUDGE need to provide either with Option A or Option B or Both AB options criteria when during JUDGEMENT *** New Rules ***:
OPTION A (Just provide 1-10 point on each criteria and average out is the overall point)
Technical criteria
- Exposure Focus/sharpness
- Colour and/or tonal rendition
- Contrast
- Lighting
Visual and aesthetic criteria
- Framing and choice of viewpoint
- Background
- Design elements and principles
- Visual impact
Content
- Emotion / Mood /Feeling
- Relevance
Viewer’s response
- Excitement
- Interest
OPTION B (Good / Bad comment)
Example:
the good: Composition is perfect, I like your lighting. blah blah blah
the bad: I think levelling the horizon would be better, the blown out highlights on top left are distracting to me. blah blah blah.
Sunset photography is a favourite subject any time of the year. The rich colours, dramatic lighting and strong shapes they offer can produce stunning shots with little need for much effort or clever planning from you.
However, you might find that your camera often captures pale imitations of the sunsets you see with your naked eye. Somehow, the intensity of the colours may have been lost, or the composition might not work.
A longer focal length and a more carefully chosen viewpoint can produce a much more effective result. The sun will be bigger in the frame and you’ll have more control over the shapes and silhouettes appearing in your sunset photography.
The key with camera settings is to make sure you capture the sunset’s colours as they are, not how the camera ‘thinks’ they should be. You might also need to adjust the exposure settings to suit the conditions, too, because in extreme lighting situations the camera might not interpret the scene in the way you expect
12 Tips for Photographing Stunning Sunsets
1. Think Ahead - While sometimes wonderful sunrise and sunset shots can be taken spontaneously without any forethought it’s often the case that the best ones come out of planning. Scope out places that might be good for sunsets in the day or two before your shoot. Look for interesting places where you might not only be able to see the sun track all the way down but where there will be opportunities for shots that include foreground elements and silhouettes.
2. Shoot at a variety of focal lengths - wide angle can create sweeping landscape shots but if you want the sun itself to be a feature of the shot you’ll want to be able to zoom right in.
3. Silhouettes as focal points - As with all photos, sunsets need a point of interest and one of the best ways to add one to a picture is to try to incorporate some sort of Silhouette into the shot. This could be something large like a mountain range, something that is part of the environment like a palm tree or a pier or could even be a person.
4. Rule of thirds - Remember the rule of thirds in your photographing of sunrises and sunsets. While you can always break the rule it’s often a good idea to place elements like the horizon, sun, silhouettes etc off centre.
5. Shoot at a variety of exposures - if you let your camera decide what shutter length to shoot at you’re likely to get a shot that doesn’t really capture the beauty of the light. Quite often the shot will be under exposed because the sky is still reasonably light.
6. Bracketing - Another technique to try to get the right exposure is ‘bracketing’ where you look at what the camera suggests you take the picture at and then take a few shots at both under and over that mark. ie if your camera says to shoot at 1/60th of a second at f/8 you would shoot off a shot at 1/60 at f/5.6 and then at f/11. In doing so you end up with a series of shots at different exposures which will all give you slightly different results and colors. Most DSLR’s and some point and shoot digital cameras have a built in bracketing feature so you don’t need to do this manually – learn how to use it!
7. Auto Exposure Lock - Another exposure trick, if you don’t have a bracketing mode or don’t feel confident in using it is if your camera has ‘auto exposure lock’ which allows you to point your camera at a darker place and lock in exposure for that spot (ie you could point it at the ground in front of you and lock in that exposure) and then reframe the picture looking at the sunset. This will mean you get a more over exposed shot.
8. Take camera out of Auto White balance mode - when you set your camera to ‘Auto’ in it’s white balance mode you run the risk of losing some of the warm golden tones of a sunrise or sunset. Instead try shooting in ‘cloudy’ or ‘shade’ which are usually used in cooler lights and tell your camera to warm things up a little. Alternatively – if you’re shooting a sunrise and DO want a cooler moody shot you can experiment with other white balance settings.
9. Tripod - If you’re shooting at longer shutters speeds and with longer focal lengths then a tripod or some other way of ensuring your camera is completely still is essential.
10. Manual Focus - sometimes when shooting in extreme lighting conditions some cameras can have trouble focussing. If this is the case for your camera consider switching to manual focus to ensure you get nice crisp shots.
11. Look around you - The wonderful thing about sunsets is that they not only create wonderful colors in the sky in front of you but they also can cast a beautiful golden light that is wonderful for other types of photography. As the sunset progresses keep an eye on other opportunities for shots around you (not just in front of you). You might find a great opportunity for a portrait, landscape shot, macro shot etc behind you in the colden light.
12. Keep Shooting - A sunset or sunrise constantly changes over time and can produce great colors well after the sun goes down or appears so keep shooting at different exposures and focal lengths as I’ve mentioned above until you’re sure it’s all over.
Special thanks to
digital-photography-school for essential tips
Enjoy the photography for the week... and plan a head all the schedule of the weekend...
Post #2 by ramseybuckeye
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