Hedgie Photography

Sunset Colors

I had a few hours to spend in the Deception Pass and Oak Harbor area, and sunset was approaching. So I grabbed my camera and took some pictures. The result is a good study of color and saturation. High saturation is normally a real turn-off in photography, but in sunset pictures the landscape frequently is naturally saturated.

This shot directly into the sun really brings out the colors in the sunset. The image is darkened to allow the sky to shine through without clipping highlights. Not my favorite sunset shot, but I like the vivid colors.

The Deception Pass Bridge, taken from the mid-bridge island looking south. Note the sunset’s reddish color on the grass in the foreground — this picture was taken after the shot before it. The blue sky comes from a polarizing filter nearly exactly 90 degrees offset from the sun.

From Deception Pass it took my twenty five minutes to drive to downtown Oak Harbor, where this photograph proves that the sun produces beautiful colors for a long time. The sun may be below the horizon, but the only change I had to make was bumping ISO up to 200 from 80.

One last shot across Oak Harbor towards the marina. Despite the lateness, you can still see some red reflecting off the mountains in the far background.

Final call? Don’t oversaturate your images just to make a okay photograph “pop” more, but don’t be afraid to use saturation where it’s naturally high. None of these images would look as good with lower saturation.