Magnificent sunbeam: The other perspective (Part I.)
It's summertime! Yes, this also means going on holiday, nice weather and lot of sunshine. Ideal conditions for taking some photos as well! Today I decided not only to publish a new post, but to start a mini-series about my recent experiments.
"Learn the rules; then break them."
Probably this is the most quoted rule of photography. But how does it apply to sunset images? I think about this quite a lot, mostly while walking around with a camera in my hands. Shooting these kind of photos is pretty straightforward; the time of sunsets are well-defined on each day. The only thing to do is finding a nice place, then fire the shutter in the right moment. So what makes the difference between an average capture and a great one? I consider the following things to be the most important aspects:
- Timing
- Weather conditions
- Composition
Timing
Usually the right time to make the shot is 15-20 minutes before sunset. There is no point in arriving earlier as the light blue color of the sky can't match the strong, yellow sunbeams. However I found that the next 30 minutes could be interesting as well! The sun is already gone by then; however the horizon glows in different shades of orange which goes well with the dark blue sky. This effect also depends on the weather conditions, slight haze boosts it a lot! For some reason I didn't attempt to create these kind of pictures, so time has come to do some experiments.
Let me share some background details about the picture. We spent a week with my family in a town called Fonyod. It is located on the south bank of Lake Balaton, which is the biggest one in Hungary. As we don't have any real coastline, it is called the "Hungarian Sea". A couple of mountains surround the Balaton on the north shore; result of earlier volcanic activity in this area. These ancient basalt hills work well as silhouettes when looking at them from the south shore. Perhaps the most iconic one, the hill called Badacsony, lays exactly the opposite side of the lake. (Wine produced there is really nice, I simply love it!) So one evening I set up my tripod in the garden, and waited for the perfect moment...
Let me share some background details about the picture. We spent a week with my family in a town called Fonyod. It is located on the south bank of Lake Balaton, which is the biggest one in Hungary. As we don't have any real coastline, it is called the "Hungarian Sea". A couple of mountains surround the Balaton on the north shore; result of earlier volcanic activity in this area. These ancient basalt hills work well as silhouettes when looking at them from the south shore. Perhaps the most iconic one, the hill called Badacsony, lays exactly the opposite side of the lake. (Wine produced there is really nice, I simply love it!) So one evening I set up my tripod in the garden, and waited for the perfect moment...
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| Witness of times |
Metadata
Camera: Canon 5D
Lens: Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4 ZE
Aperture: F11
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