How to take and edit sunset pictures like a pro, when you're not a pro

I took some sunset pictures when we went to the beach.  And I love them.

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a professional photographer.

I'm a self/internet/learn-by-failure photographer with a simple beginner DSLR and a lens that is awesome, but also cheap.  So if I can get pictures like this, then you probably can too.  Even better ones, I bet. If you have a DSLR.  If you have a point and shoot, well then maybe not.  I don't know.

But anyway here's how I took and edited these sunset pictures. 

First, get out early. Before the sun sets so you can watch the light changing and experiment with your camera.

Second, put your camera in manual mode.  I know manual mode is scary.  BUT you really CANNOT have it in automatic mode and still expect to capture the light that you see.  Because the automatic camera will be thinking, "HOLY CRAP.  She's trying to take a picture and it's dark so I need to adjust all these settings to let enough light in!" Then the camera will lower the shutter speed so that if you move or shake the camera there will be tons of blur, or raise the ISO which will make the picture all grainy and not sharp.  Or, even worse, it will bring the flash out.  And you don't want that.

You will be adjusting three things.  The aperature, the shutter speed, and the ISO.  You want to set your aperature fairly wide (which means lower numbers).  If you have a kit lens, then set it to the 3.5, which is the lowest it goes.  And DO NOT ZOOM.  My lens goes down to 1.8, and I had it set for 2.0 in all of these pictures.  

As far as shutter speed goes, chances are you will be shooting scenery, or subjects that might not be moving around too much.  So you can lower the shutter speed.  But don't make it too low or the slightest shake of the camera will cause a lot of blur.  In all of these pictures my shutter speed was set at 125.

Since my shutter speed was still above 100, I was able to take pictures of these random surfer dudes and they weren't big balls of blur.

Hey thanks random dudes for being in my picture :)

Okay on to your ISO.  This is this most important setting to adjust. (okay maybe they're all important, but don't forget this one)  If you keep it set at automatic, the camera will raise it up as high as it can.  The picture will not look sharp.  It will have a lot of "noise".  As crazymomemily says, it will look "gritty".

In all of these pictures, I set my ISO to 200.  I kept it at that and as I took pictures and looked at them, I adjusted the other two settings to get the look I wanted. If the picture was too dark I either lowered the shutter speed or the aperature.  For example, if the picture was too dark, I needed more light.  So I slowed down the shutter from say 200, to 125, where I kept it.  But don't go lower than that unless you have a tripod.  And also if I didn't want to lower the shutter speed because I didn't have a tripod, I dropped down the aperature.  I took it from say a 4.0 to the 2.0. 

Fourth, find something besides the sky to be your subject.  If you're not a professional, than using manual focusing is probably pretty daunting.  I can't do it.  Not under pressure anyway, and definitely not in low light.  So I have to use automatic.  But since the light is quickly fleeing, the camera will have a difficult time if you point it up and try to focus on the sky.  So find something else to focus on.  And also as it gets darker, it will just have a harder time focusing.  Just FYI.

In this picture below I focused on that little skim board.  Actually to be completely honest it focused on the skim board on its own because it was the closest thing to me.  So it worked out well.  See I'm definitely no professional.

Fifth, consider using people as silhouettes for the subject.  If you're focusing on people with the sunset behind them, then they will be dark.  But that's okay, because you can turn them into cool silhouettes later when you edit.

Aww, me and my hubby.  Emily took this picture.  So thanks, Emily.

Okay, so those five tips I hope will help you when you're trying to capture the sunset.  But.  It's time for the let's get REAL part of this post.

Because these pictures didn't turn out like this straight out of my camera.  They could have.  IF I knew how to adjust the white balance.  And I don't.  Well I do, but it's a pain.  And I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing when it comes to that.  So this non-pro's solution is simple: fix the white balance (which affects the coloring) later in PicMonkey. 

You know my best friend PicMonkey.

I did ONE thing, the SAME thing to all of these pictures when I edited them to get them to perfection (well, my standard of perfection).

I adjusted the temperature in the color tab.

See, as it got darker, the pictures took on more of a purplish hue, instead of the warm more orange hue.  I knew as it happened that it was the temperature and could be fixed later so I just let it go.

Here is one of the above pictures before I edited it:

I had to adjust the temperature on most of the pics.

Oh, sunset is so beautiful.  And so is the beach.  And sunset at the beach?  Ahhh, well it's the best thing ever.

Okay I hope these tips are helpful for you non pro mommy photographers out there.  And if you're a professional cringing right now, please leave your expert tips in the comments.  Because I'd love to know what I could do better for next time, too!

Also, we are affiliated withPicMonkey.  If you sign up for Royale through these links, we will be compensated.  (awesomely, though, the temperature adjusting tool is FREE)