While camera technology has come light years in terms of ease of use and capability, nothing can capture the beauty of an Alabama lake sunset better than the human eye. Have you ever stepped out on the deck of your lake home and marveled at the sky, pulled out your camera or cell phone to snap a photo, only to look at your memento in disgust because it fails miserably to capture what you’re really seeing? Read on for some easy tweaks to get the best sunset photos on the lake!
The quality of your photo is always a product of how much light you captured in your lens. This is especially true in photographing sunsets. For those of you who still like to pull out the Nikon, here are some settings to adjust for great quality lake photos. For most sunset photos you want to be looking at the lake about 30 minutes before dark. A tripod is helpful, but anything steady will make the task easier.
1.Set your aperture (F number) to f/16.
2.Set your ISO as low as it can go, typically 100.
3.Set your shutter speed to 1/30-1/60 seconds.
You should be fairly pleased with the quality of photos you’re getting at this point. If you want to tweak further make sure to turn on High Dynamic Range or HDR on your camera. This will take a series of three to five photos at various exposures and then overlay them into one master picture. The results will show every image in the photo at the perfect exposure for the most definition and detail.
For IOS users you can still grab great lake sunset photos with just your phone. Check your settings for HDR and let it rip! You won’t get the quality of a Canon or Nikon which has a bigger light sensor, but you’ll definitely get something perfect for Instagram!
by: Clark Stewart, the Alabama Lake Guru