Sigma 18-200mm lens cheat card info

sharona77

I bought a Sigma 18-200mm lens to go with my starter lens that came with the T2i. I want to snap some night shots of a bridge and of sunsets. Any advice for a beginner who is experimenting with not using the preset shot buttons?

I used the cheat cards using the starter lens for sunsets, but they were really yellow, not capturing the blue of the sky and water with the colors of the sunset.

Ideas?

Thanks!!

PBked

Hi sharona77,
The lens you use should not affect the outcome of your pictures except for scale. As a general rule, I don't photograph sunsets at wide angle. Sunsets are a magical time with ever changing colors and results vary greatly. You have to be lucky to capture a good sunset in one shot. The colors of a sunset change during the time of the setting so it is important to shoot many shots while the setting is going on. You won't get blue sky, blue water and a setting sun together. The object in mind is the sun.

So here are a few tips:

1) Never look through the viewfinder at the sun even at sunset. Use a tripod and live view.

2) Bracket your exposures (i.e. take shots with different settings either side of the one your camera suggests). If you are confident with manual mode, take an exposure using auto (eg. f/8 at 1/125th). Now switch to manual mode and set that exposure. Take a picture. Change your aperture to f/5.6 and take a picture. Change aperture to f/11and take a picture, or you can do it with shutter speed (leave the aperture at f/8 and take pictures at 1/60th and then 1/250th). Of course you can take pictures a couple of stops either side of the suggested exposure. The more you take, the better chance of getting good shots.

3) Take your white balance off auto and try the presets for cloudy or shade, not daylight

4) Consider your scene. If the sky has clouds you can get some dramatic shots. If the sky is clear then try to include a silhouette of an object or person like the bridge you mentioned.

5) Take your shots towards the middle or end of the sunset for best effect.

6) Remember there is no magical setting for sunsets. Cameras like compacts with a sunset setting simply alter the colors to be more red or orange or yellow. When you look at the results you can often think "It didn't look like that to me!".

I'm sorry if this seems long-winded, but in reality we are talking a few minutes.

Happy shooting,
PBked

Moose

Hey @sharona77 - If you shoot me some examples (support "at" cameratips.com) I can take a look and see what went wrong. Also, the Sunsets cheat card is meant to capture just the sky color and not the landscape. In fact the landscape will probably come out very dark in relation to the sky. If you'd like to get a colorful sky and a colorful landscape, use the HDR cheat card. All the best!