How do you know when conditions are prime for nice sunset/sunrise?

I would like to know what sort of conditions to look for in advance to better

improve my chances of getting one of those "sky afire" sunrise or sunsets. I

know this is controlled by atmospheric conditions, but what are those

conditions to look for?

 

Is it as simple as the old sailors' sayings - "Red sky at night, sailor's

delight, red sky at dawn, sailors take warn?" So when cold fronts are coming

in or the atmospheric pressure is dropping, I should get a nice sunrise and

vice versa for sunsets?

Best way to find beautiful sunsets and sunrises is to leave your camera at home, I have found. They're stunning, then.

Thanks Stephen, that's a big help. ;)

On a side note, without the camera, the only way I'll ever witness a sunrise is after or during a long night of poker...

Generally, anytime there are clouds, you've got a chance at a nice sky - but if its just after a rain, the air is a lot cleaner, dust particles are missing, and there very well may be no color.

 

Watch the sky opposite the rising or setting sun - it takes about five minutes for what's happening to in the opposite direction to reach the sky where the sun is rising or setting. For example, in California, if clouds turn pink to the east at sunset, they will do the same in the west a few minutes later.

 

Sometimes clouds seem too heavy to allow any sunlight through them at sunset and dawn. However, there is often a clear area just above the horizon, even when cloud cover seems complete. Wait to see if the sun slips under the clouds for a few minutes - the result can be spectacular.<div></div>

Thanks Dave, but what I'm really looking for is a way to know either the night before, or at least while it's still full dark, to know when conditions are ripe for the sunrise.

 

With a 9-5, a 2 year old and a 6 month old, I need some advanced warning of when I am going to try to catch the sunrise, and they've really been unspectacular when I've gone. Things like unforecasted fog or one of those sunrises where only a thin sliver of the sky is that nice, red/pink color.

 

As a non-morning person, I hate getting up 1-1.5 hours before dawn to get crappy sunrises...

"Red skies at night, sailor's delight."

Hold a sheet of white paper at arms length flat - parallel to the floor. Then imagine shinig an orange flashlight from a low angle to light the underneath side of the paper. That's what you are looking for to get a shot like <a href="http://www.enlightphoto.com/webpages/portpg1/sierarod.htm">this (Sierra)</a> or <a href="http://www.enlightphoto.com/webpages/cadv/cadv2_11.htm">this (Death Valley)</a>. You need a clearing to the east at sunrise, or to the west at sunset, that would allow that sunbeam of light to get onto the bottom of the clouds. So for sunrise, an ideal is to be on the leading edge of a storm front, and the trailing edge at sunset. That should give you the best chance of getting those unseen holes where there is the clear(er) skies beyond the horizon. Btw - The sailor story is that at sunset, on the trailing edge of a storm, clear skies are to the west, and as weather moves east, you're likely to wake up with better weather the next morning. (Reverse that for the Red Sky in Morning.)<br>

<br>

Gary Crabbe<br>

<a href="http://www.enlightphoto.com">Enlightened Images</a><br>

<a href="http://www.enlightphoto.com/views">Enlightened Images Views</a>

I would bet that clouds and haze help the best sunsets.

 

But I mean haze...light haze...not overcast weather

 

Thin clouds are nice too. Eventually with a thin-clouds-day there is probably some haze in the atmosphere and you can get pink clouds with orange horizon...or something like this

 

I also really enjoy what I call "rainbow-weather-light". It happens when it's close to sunset time and rained a little time before. When the skies begin to clear you can get dark clouds, very dense and yellow light and even rainbows :)

 

That's my opinion.

 

Good luck

We get our best sunsets here in Arizona when the monsoon season happens in the summer, July-August. The high thunderheads makes for intersting photos.This comes with a High Dew Point and dust in the sky.

>Thanks Dave, but what I'm really looking for is a way to know either the night before, or at least while it's still full dark, to know when conditions are ripe for the sunrise.<

 

Gary, I think you're out of luck.

 

For me, the entire point of sunset and sunrise photography is that I don't know what's going to happen. The natural world isn't like a laboratory. There's no way to forecast "unforecasted fog."

 

I think the best you can do is check the weather report before you go to bed, wake up early, poke your head out of the window or tent door, look at the sky and see what it looks like.

 

For that matter, even w/ clear weather, mountains can burn bright with alpenglow, even when it's clear.

 

For me, it's like fishing - I might not catch anything, but I have fun trying (and there's always something to photograph). :-)<div></div>

Gary,

 

I think the question you are asking is too dependent on local meteorological tendencies to

have a universal answer. As a Washington, DC native, I know the DC/Mid-Atlantic area can

be frustrating compared to various locations in the American west. Back when I was

photographing at places like the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic coast, along the Potomac

River, and in Shenandoah National Park, I tried to scout a foreground location as best as

possible. Then I would get out there during magic hour and hope for the best. Much of the

time, things just didn't work out, but on rare occassions, they were splendid! Such is the

lot of the landscape photographer!!! :)

 

Have fun, and good luck in your search for the sweet light!

 

- Justin

Watch the news for large-scale forest fires in adjoining states. That's when they're far enough away not to fill your sky with smoke, but close enough to put lots of particulate into the air to give you the wild, wild reds.

 

The '88 Yellowstone fires gave us the most impressive sunsets I've seen in my life.

 

steve

Thin high cloud cover yields the best horizon to horizon pastel sunsets. These sunsets can last an hour or two.

 

Low heavy clouds are good for the intimate rich colored landscape. These last at most 15 minutes.

 

Truth be told, what I do is look at the window and if conditions look reasonable for a good sunset, then I look here ( http://wwwa.accuweather.com/radar-large.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0&traveler=0&zipcode=&level=regional&site=NW&anim=STILL&type=RS ) to see if it is clear over the Pacific.

 

For sunrises you will need to find a weather site catering to pilots (to get the cloud ceiling in the dark) and then check the larger picture to see cloud structure to the East.

 

Also, if you find a good weather site for pilots, please share the link.

 

enjoy,

 

Sean

Standing bridge watches with the Navy it became fairly easy to tell a couple of hours, sometimes longer, before sunrise or sunset but not overnight. (But no green flashes. :( ) Thin, broken, moderate open coverage, medium to high layers, etc. Too thick at lower levels, the red light won't get up to the higher clouds - what you are getting is the red parts of the spectrum shining up from at and beyond the horizon, dirt, dust and smoke can help with reddish coloration at the horizon but isn't needed for the high colors.

Volcanic eruptions are a great help.

 

Pinatuba produced some of the most outstanding sunsets I have ever seen. Greens, golds, indigo. Amazing. You could depend on these sunsets to repeat themselves for a month or so.

 

Also, watch for the huge sandstorms that occur in the Gobi. The dust reaches our west coast a few days later. With varied results, but interesting.

 

In the American Southwest you can count on a great sunset like clockwork from mid-July to mid-September. You wake up to a blue sky and by noon the clouds build. By dusk, the sun is illuminating 50,000' high cells and the red sandstone. A world wonder.<div></div>

Gary - sorry but if anybody could predict in the way that you want they would not be on here, they would be on a very large yacht cruising the Med :(

 

We look out over a valley towards the west and often get beautiful sunsets but the longest timescale for prediction is only a couple of hours at best.

 

As for sunrises they are obscured by trees all round to the east so I have an excuse of sorts not to get up too early but I am afraid you will have to haul your back off the mattress and take your chance.

 

Much of what has been said is good advice but I would just add that if you have had a long period of dry weather the dust in the atmosphere will add to the colours noticeably. This is still true if there is an approaching storm as it reddens the sun even more than normal.

 

This was especially true in Kenya where you could easily go weeks/months without rain but not so much in the UK as at the moment we barely get ONE dry day :)

 

One word of caution - be very careful about looking directly at the sun for too long be it rising or setting - your eyes are a valuable, irreplaceable asset.

 

As in so many things serendipity rules !

 

Good luck.

I see many people wait and watch for a sunset on a nice clear day only to be disappointed by lack of color. Many times, if they rotated 180 degrees they would see an Earth's Shadow after sunset.

Always got great sunsets when we lived in Italy. Lack of emission controls increased the air pollution, and well...

tough question that i dont believe there is an answer to. getting good sunrise/sunset photographs takes a lot of work and luck. even when the sky doesnt look like its going to produce good colors, it might. my experience is just get your butt out of bed and get out there. a lot of my most memorable sunrises came when i thought there wouldnt be much chance to even see a sunrise.<div></div>

Take a chair. Stay 24 hours in the place you want to photograph. And you got it! Now you

know every light in every part of the day!

 

Lawrence, did you use filter?

Here's a link to an article that I wrote that partly adresses what you ask.

 

http://www.photomigrations.com/articles/0403300.htm

das. no filters. woke up late that morning, and when i poked my head out of my tent, everything was glowing pink :)

The other thing is clouds.

You have no idea what the clouds will be like until the sun comes up, or about an hour or so before it goes down. I've seen some great cloud formations that really added to a sunrise/set photo, and some that just looked blah.

 

As was mentioned, I've also had fog roll in and completely obstruct a sunrise.

 

About clouds. I was on Maui (Hawaii) and drove up to Haleakala for the sun rise. Well I never broke out of the top of the clouds. :-(

 

But that is mother nature. She does what SHE want to do.

 

Gary

Lawrence: Impressive picture.

 

DG