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Garry Black Photography

Question:

I want to try taking sunset coastal shots. Any tips?

Answer:

It really depends on what type of coastline you will be photographing. Since you didn't specify what type of coastline, my advice will be pretty non-specific (you can use these techniques on any coastline).

Quite often some of the best "sunset pictures" do not even include the Sun. You can use a telephoto lens to capture the swath of sunlight on the water and rocks or sand as your compositional elements.

Turn the camera at 90 degrees to the sun, to photograph the coastline (works great on rocky shorelines) if you have a Yellow/Blue polarizer filter this is a great time to use it. Some of my best sunset shots have occurred after the sun has actually set. Although it may not be apparent to the eye, there will be colour bouncing off the clouds and sky onto the water and the shoreline, the quality of this light is soft but is still directional. These lighting conditions provide the perfect opportunity to use a longer shutter speeds (greater than 1 second) to create soft looking water.