Best weather to predict good sunsets

[Wayland]

Those vapour trails are actually "Chem Trails" or chemical trails. The CIA has instituted a policy of undermining civil behavior by misting cities with LSD.

[jacobsmith]

One more thing: As Richard indicated. The more filth and debris in the air the better the result.

This was taken at the Solstice in June this year. The air was full of dust from an exceptionally dry and still week. Made for horrible daytime landscapes as the light was dull, diffused and dead at my usual preferred morning and evening times when the sun was low in the sky. However the sunsets were some compensation
what a great photography to take good sunsets shots. I can't imagine this view but this is really fab picture.

[brucehughw]

Hi, thanks for the post. Would you mind telling me when and where the photo was taken.

thanks, Bruce

[Jeff S]

Great advice from everyone on this thread. I would only add that it is sometimes (often, even) worthwhile waiting for the sun to disappear from view (as others have noted) and then look for interesting things to shoot in the half-light and/or don't be afraid to shoot in really poor weather conditions (as long as you are not expecting the classic image). Technically, I suppose this is not shooting a sunset, but it still falls under the title to this thread.

The following are examples of shots where (1) the sky was just a pretty salmon color and a sailboat was available, (2) clouds had moved in and rain was falling, (3) black and white treatment at sunrise was interesting, and (4) the sun had dropped below the opposite horizon and for no more than 30 seconds the sky went purple above a bank of dark clouds rising from the western horizon (I was sitting in my living room when I happened to look out the window and saw this great light. I grabbed my camera and made one handheld shot, then went into another room to get my tripod because the light was so dim and by the time I got back - 30 seconds max - the color was gone). None of these are conventional sunrises or sunsets, but they all admit to other possibilities.









The nice thing about shooting sunrises and sunsets is that even when conditions are not very good, the light is usually good to excellent for photography.

[Old Veteran]

I had a passion for sun set photos and I found that, you may not like this, smog can give good photos. I don't mean the ugly green stuff, but the "haze" that you can see over cities. Clouds are big part of the shot but the light will be affected by the "junk" in the air. There are sun set photos over mountains with clear air and it's the clouds that have the color. The haze will put the color in the air.

Bob

[brucehughw]

Hi, Bob.
thanks for the comment. I understand what you mean about smog and haze. My co-author and I are still working out all the details of our publication, and thus far one of our tenets has been smog and haze attenuate the light and make for a less impressive image. But we've been thinking mostly about images taken when the sun has already set, where it's the varied colors of the clouds that make for a beautiful sunset. Perhaps there's another category of images, one with the sun still above the horizon, and maybe in these smog/haze are needed to both attenuate the bright light of the sun and to help produce some color in the sky. Do you have any images that illustrate your point about haze putting color in the air?

thanks, Bruce

[Shadowman]

Just before a storm. So timing is important and opportunity is limited.

[Dr Bob]

Clouds and water and something in the forground are good. Here is a shot I got while visiting Yellowstone Park this past September. I got lucky one evening.

[brucehughw]

Hi, Bob.

Great image. Do you have the time, date, and location of the image?

Thanks, Bruce

[Nickding]

Really helpful post and wonderful sunset shots. Learn a lot in sunset photography in this post. Thumb up!

[mmkuhns]

Fun discussion and I realize its a few months old, so apologies for pulling a bit of a zombie thread.

Just wanted to let everyone know there is a new program, Skyfire, which predicts sunset and sunrise location and quality a day in advance. If your curious its at www.skyfireapp.com

hope it helps you find the light!

[Glenn NK]

Those vapour trails are actually "Chem Trails" or chemical trails. The CIA has instituted a policy of undermining civil behavior by misting cities with LSD.

Rolling the floor - you know the first part.

About six years ago, I met a guy who actually believed it.

[rpcrowe]

Sometimes some good sunset shots are not of the sunset itself but of the light that the sunset provides...

[mknittle]

Some of the best sunsets/rises come from the sun reflecting off the bottoms of clouds.

[mknittle]

Those vapour trails are actually "Chem Trails" or chemical trails. The CIA has instituted a policy of undermining civil behavior by misting cities with LSD.

That explains a lot.

[brucehughw]

Hi,

Thanks for posting this and for coining (?) a new term, zombie thread .

The app is interesting. I wonder what they charge.

To comment a little on what my meteorologist colleague and I learned about sunsets (there are many things and types to like, so I'm just writing about our point of view, no flames, please), the key is to have a decent cloud deck to one's west (where the sun sets, of course, reverse for sun rise) and a break near the horizon (the cloud deck does not reach the horizon). That way when the sun sets a few degrees below the horizon, Rayleigh scattering (see physics text) will filter out the blue light and the remaining violet, red and orange wavelengths (and others) will reach the cloud deck and voila, illuminate it.

I wonder if the app knows about the need for the cloud deck to not reach the horizon, or if it's just looking at cloud locations and predicted locations at sunset time, noting when they are to the west of a given spot (a few tens of miles away, but not hundreds) and forecasting a good sunset for that location.

This article, http://www.spc.noaa.gov/publications/corfidi/sunset/, has more background on the topic. The author, my meteorologist colleague, also has a recent interview in online National Geographic.

Bruce

Fun discussion and I realize its a few months old, so apologies for pulling a bit of a zombie thread.

Just wanted to let everyone know there is a new program, Skyfire, which predicts sunset and sunrise location and quality a day in advance. If your curious its at www.skyfireapp.com

hope it helps you find the light!