On the Cusp of the Sun by Russ Burden

October 13, 2008

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On the Cusp of the Sun by Russ Burden

In order to become a better photographer, you may have to sacrifice some sleep and normal dinner hours to catch the best lighting opportunities

Article rating: 9.26

So you want to be a better photographer? Then getting up early and sacrificing normal dinner times are givens. The best and most dramatic light coincides with sunrise and sunset. I like to refer to these times as the cusp of the sun. As a matter of fact, as I’m sitting here writing this article, I’m watching a very pleasing pastel pink hue grow in intensity behind a classic Colorado mountain peak. Not quite intense enough to grab the camera, but it’s certainly inspiring me to share the moment. It’s at these cusp times when the undersides of clouds become their most saturated, the colors have the most potential to explode, and the light at either dawn or dusk paints the landscape with a soft quality impossible to achieve at any other time of day. To capture these moments at their best, incorporate some of the following tips into your photography to come home with images you’d be proud to hang on your wall.

Dusk and Dawn: Get to your location 30 minutes before the sun comes up and watch the quality of light change. As each passing moment unfolds, capture your subject and study the results. There’s a softness to the light, but it also has a subtle saturated quality. If you’re lucky, Mother Nature will bestow you an alpenglow. Should this happen, be forewarned. You'll become addicted making getting up early in the day a lot easier as you anticipate this magical light reoccurring on every shoot. Will there be mornings it doesn’t happen at all? YES. Will there be mornings when it’s totally gray and you wish you slept in instead? YES. But there will also be mornings when the the sky takes on a quality that will make you glad you rose to the occasion as you relive the memory every time you look at the photos. The same quality of light occurs after the sun sets. Just because the sun drops behind the horizon, don’t pack up. Wait for the magic so your addiction can be expanded to the hours of dusk.

Filter It: There is a specific set of filters that I’d never leave home without when shooting sunrise and sunset. I find Graduated Neutral Density filters of varying strengths and hardnesses indispensable. In my arsenal, I have a one, two, and three stop soft edge, in addition to a two stop hard edge. As the sun rises or sets, the sky is often a lot brighter than the foreground. The purpose of the graduated neutral density filter is to create a much narrower tonal range between the sky and land so that the overall effect of the image isn’t as contrasty. The top of one of these filters is dark and the bottom is clear. By placing the dark top portion over the brighter sky in the composition, the sky is darkened producing an exposure where detail is revealed in both the brighter sky area and darker foreground. As some of my photographer friends question while I still use these filters as the effect can be replicated in Photoshop, I reply that my preference is to capture pure pixels so I don’t have to alter them which has the potential to degrade the image. In addition to the graduated neutral density filters, I also have a few that have sunset related colors on the top that impart an extra bit of color when I want to give a bit more punch to the sky.

Work It: On the mornings and evenings you are presented with special skies, take full advantage. When I lead my nature photo tours, I’m often heard saying, “Exhaust all Possibilities.” Don’t just stand in one place pressing the shutter. While it’s true that many subjects have an ideal position from which to photograph them, don’t miss out on getting all the supplementary shots that will add to your portfolio. You can always return to the ideal tripod leg location when the light reaches its peak. But in the meantime, walk to your left, right, try to get to a higher location, and squat down lower, Shoot verticals and horizontals and try different filters. Your excitement level will most certainly be high so try to relax as you create many new and wonderful compositions.

To learn more about this topic, join me on one of my Photographic Nature Tours. Visit www.russburdenphotography.com and click on the NATURE TOURS button for more information. Also, pick up a copy of my new book, Amphoto’s Complete Book of Photography. You can purchase a signed copy directly from me or visit your local book store or Amazon. Contact me at rburden@ecentral.com to order your signed copy.

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