I wasn’t expecting this when I was down in Brighton at the weekend! After weeks of depressing grey skies, Hannah and I spent a relaxing sunny day wandering around town then on to the pier in the evening.
I didn’t have my camera with me, so this was taken on my iPhone, and I think it has done a pretty good job (obviously my expert composition and waiting for the seagulls to get in the frame has helped!). I have posted it here as taken, with no post processing at all. As you can see there’s a little bit of lens flare in the centre, but I think that adds to it.
You will probably notice sunsets never as good on your camera as they do when you’re looking at them. Apart from getting the exposure wrong, this is likely because you’re wearing sunglasses. So, why not put sunglasses on you camera?! I shot this through mine to act as a filter; the blues deepen and the yellows/oranges become more saturated. The effect is even better if you have posh polarised sunglasses! Of course this will only work if your lens is fully covered by the glasses, so your SLR lens will probably be too big (you can buy a polarising lens designed to fit).
Explaining the golden rule of thirds, one of the fundamental composition rules in photography. You may find your eye takes photos in this way naturally. If not, you can always crop. Here’s the same image with a grid overlay, dividing the image into thirds horizontally and vertically. As you can see, I have positioned the horizon on the bottom third vertically, and the pier leg on the left third horizontally. Of course rules are there to be broken, so don’t be afraid of experimenting!
