Whatever Happened to My Sunset?

Article & Images by Chuck Klingsporn

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Have you ever driven or hiked to a place where you hoped for a great shot of a sunset looking out over something like a mountain–scrape or at the seashore with trees or sailboats silhouetted in the foreground? You got there, waited and nothing happened. The color didn’t materialize or it was much less than you had hoped. What happened to the sunset color show?

While I have had that disappointment, the opposite has also happened. While driving at dusk in mountainous terrain I have come around a corner or over a hilltop and the sunset color has been nothing short of incredible. Stop the car, get out the gear (hopefully you are always prepared and have it with you) and start shooting.

Because I have had both the disappointment and the surprise excitement of finding good conditions that I didn’t expect, I needed to know why. I asked myself the question. “Can I get the right planning information before I head out the door to know that conditions will be right for a colorful sunrise or sunset?” What are the factors to be considered; what kinds of weather and atmospheric conditions lead to vibrant color and are there ways to check on the probabilities before you head out to shoot?

First, what are the conditions?

Location, Location, Location is the old catch phrase that applies to real estate value. Location may not be a hundred percent of a good sunset photo but it sure is important. Finding a great location can come from your own experience and what is of interest to you. You can get location ideas from ether photographers, from looking at web sites, from magazines and from talking to people who live in the area that interests you. Finding the right location has been the topic of many, many articles and conversations and won’t be covered here. It is clearly the place to start. Once you have a location in mind, how do you know whether the site conditions at the time you plan to be there will likely lead to the great shot you envision?

What does your research consist of, what factors do you need to considered? There are three general areas that I have found to be useful and on which you can gather timely information. They are, Timing, when do I have to be there?, Weather, what will the weather be at the time of rise or set and Atmospheric Conditions. What kinds of chemical elements, electrically charged particles and/or geologic dust are in the upper atmosphere that influences the color and quality of the light rays that are getting through the atmosphere? Let’s look at these three factors and point you to some sites on the Internet where timely information can be found.

Time

If your are traveling to a location away from home, you may be operating in a different time zone, at a different altitude and different longitude and latitude. There are web sites that will tell you sunrise and sunset time for any requested date, with varying amounts of detail. Even if you are at home, the added detail of specific rise or set times including moonrise and moon phase may be of help.

• The US Naval Observatory service covers a one year time span and includes worldwide locations. Information can be sought either by entering city name and state or by longitude and latitude if you are working with GPS mapping, Moonrise and moon set times are also provided.
  http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html
• A second site with similar information, one which includes moon phases and several “twilight” definitions. (These “twilight” times are shown on the Naval Observatory site but are not defined: The “Civil Twilight” calculation may be of greatest use to photographers because best light is sometimes after the sun has set or before it is up over the horizon in the morning.
  http://www.sunrisesunset.com/custom_srss_calendar.asp
• For the photographer that wants more detail and formatted reports, there is a software package available called “SunPath.” For the serious chaser of sunrise and sunset light, SunPath provides much more detailed information such as shadow length estimates, estimates of the “Magic Light Hours” and Sun position in fifteen minute intervals. It is available for both P.C. and Mac platforms at:
  http://www.wide-screen.com/sunPATH/index.shtml

Weather forecasts are crucial, possibly the key variable that you can check specifically because of the obvious impact of cloud cover, temperature, possible rainfall, wind direction and velocity. Fortunately, there are hundreds of weather forecast services available to the photographer on the Internet. They include many very good free sites and an even larger number of commercial sites that specialize for a variety of more specific, usually, business related purposes.

As a starting point, what you don’t want is solid overcast; there is no sunset to be seen. Cloudless skies are not much better as there is nothing in the sky for the fading sun to reflect from. The reflected and filtered light rays that come in a partially cloudy sky are a large part of what makes a sunrise or set what it is. That is not to say that you should stay indoors if the forecast is for rain as some outstanding photography conditions can occur after a storm. If you can be at your “right” place when the clouds are clearing after a storm, the air will be clean and clear, good conditions for sharp images and clean saturated colors.

While extremes in surface air temperature don’t always bear directly on the quality of sunrise or sunset color, very cold or very warm air temperatures, relatively high humidity and large amounts of air pollution can lead to more colorful sunsets due to the pollutants in the air which absorb and reflect the differing wavelengths of light.

In general sunsets are more likely to be vibrant than sunrises because of the warmth of daytime air and a general increase in the amount of pollutants in the time leading up to your photography. This is in contrast with generally cooler night air and the calmer conditions which precede the sunrise and/or stay out after the sun is below the horizon. The colors may change dramatically as the light bounces from the base of clouds to your photographic composition.

On to Specifics

The National Weather Service is an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the federal government. The general web address of their site opens up a a myriad of links including one which can get you specific weather forecasts for thousands of US locations. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/. Use that link to also find out if there are pending storm conditions for the area you want to shoot in. There is also a page which provides more direct links to specific local forecasts in detail: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrhq/nwspage.html.

The National Weather Service is an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the federal government. The general web address of their site opens up a myriad of links including one which can get you specific weather forecasts for thousands of US locations: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/. Use that link to also find out if there are pending storm conditions for the area you want to shoot in. There is also a page which provides more direct links to specific local forecasts in detail: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrhq/nwspage.html.

The National Weather Service is an amazing resource for photographers. In my experience, one of the best NWS services for photographers is the way in which they will connect you with the current weather information by specific area or region. For example, my favorite photographic location is the Northern Rocky Mountains. When I am getting ready for a photo trip, this link gets me to the specific sections of the states in which I plan to shoot. There I can use e-mail to contact a specific person with weather related questions and / or use the phone number for a live conversation. The map which provides these links is at: http://www.stormready.noaa.gov/contact.htm.

The National Weather Service site also has a “contact” section where you can contact them by e-mail with your specific question. In my experience, they provide very good service, even calling in outside experts from a university setting when your question can not quickly be answered by a staff member. That contact is: http://www.weather.gov/om/contact.shtml.

The National Weather Service also has an extensive index to commercial weather sites on the NWS web site. As you might expect, some are more user friendly than others and in some instances, it is difficult to tell specifically what a site has to offer without going to the site to see for yourself. If this of interest to you, be prepared to spend some time exploring. The NWS link to commercial services is: http://weather.gov/im/more.htm.

If your photographic travels will take you into Canada, there are a number of ways to get information about weather. A very good place to start is at the Canadian Weather Service site: http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/canada_e.html.

The National Weather Service also has a link which will get weather forecasts to a variety of locations in Mexico and other countries: http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/MX_cc.html.

Atmospheric Conditions

The internet information about atmospheric conditions that may influence photography is much more limited than information about weather or time of day, An online search on Google®, can get you to several sites which will explain in general, how such weather elements as sky color, humidity, fog, the Northern Lights, etc., occur. However, there is no site I have found that will help you predict with specificity when these upper atmospheric factors will help you get dramatic pictures. One of the meteorologists I spoke with suggested that the data on upper atmosphere available is too fragmented and abstract to be of use to the untrained expert.

For now, that leaves us with a few generalities and the chance to do more research.

• Humid hazy polluted air will likely lead to more colorful sunset conditions because of the added pollutants to reflect light rays.
• Major volcanic eruptions disperse huge amounts of volcanic dust that can circulate in the upper atmosphere for years. When this dust combines with the influence of the beneficial weather conditions, sunrise and sunset colors are likely intensified.
• The same may be true, although to a lesser extent when there are forest fires. The effects are, however, likely more localized due to smaller amounts of smoke and ash and their distribution, which is lower in the atmosphere than volcanic dust.
• Periods of increased solar flare activity on the surface of the sun can result in more opportunity to photograph the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis.

Conclusion

Weather conditions are constantly changing and, even with thorough planning, there are no guarantees that you will get the kind of conditions you want for an outstanding sunrise or sunset photograph. Good planning will, however, help to improve your chances. Plan your time and check the weather forecast in detail, you end up with more keepers.

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