the scene, keeping the details visible. Another
option is to set the exposure to shoot the detail in
the scene as it’s bathed in the great first light of
the morning or the last light of the day. The light
is so good for photography at these times that
they are referred to as the golden hour.
■ Shooting silhouettes. The idea here is to
underexpose the image enough to render the
subjects between you and the sun totally
black. This works best when the subject has
very clearly defined shapes that are recogniz-
able without the details being visible. To do
this, you need to expose for the brightest area
so that the subject that you want is underex-
posed by at least two stops rendering it close
to pure black. The pier pilings in Figure 7-3Setting the exposure correctly
The most disappointed I am as a photographer is
when I see a great sunset and fail to capture it, not
because I don’t have a camera with me, but
because when I get the images into the computer,
the exposure is off and the colors look washed out
and flat. Setting the exposure for sunsets and sun-
rises is a little more difficult than you might realize.
The correct exposure settings depend on the way
you want to depict the sunrise or sunset. You can
set the exposure to render the darker areas in the
scene, especially those between you and the sun,
totally black, which creates great silhouettes. Or,
you can set the exposure to capture the drama in
ABOUT THIS PHOTO The pier pilings have been rendered pure black. Taken at 3 seconds, f/16, and ISO 100.
7-3