The ability to shoot sunsets needs to be learned basically through practice. Many sunsets are similar but they are all different and you want them to look unique. I am going to create a gallery of just sunsets with the information about how I shot them. It will take a little time.
This sunset is what I call a sleepy sunset. Clouds and late evening gives you some special needs from the bright cloudless sunsets. It also creates some challenges. You can see that I wanted the dock to be something other than a dark shadow of a dock with 4 dots of light. I used a higher ISO to get more ambient light but wanted the distance to be all shadows. The part that was the concern was the dock and the reflection on the lake especially the clouds.
The stats on this shot are 1/50th of a second shutter speed, hand held, ISO 400 as I did not want to burn out any areas and an f/stop of 4.5.
click to enlarge
