A Golden Gate Sunset

A series of 10 photos showing the progression of a sunset at the Golden Gate Bridge


A couple of years ago in November, I read the weather forecast as I normally do and noticed that there would be some high clouds in addition to some very low fog over the ocean.  These are the conditions I look for, because while there is a greater chance that the high clouds will spoil the light, there is also a good chance that they will contribute another dimension to the normal 'foggy sunset' sort of picture.  In american baseball terms, I swing for the fences.  For those outside the US, another way to put it is that I try for the big reward knowing that I also have a big chance at total failure!  And of course, I only show the home runs .. until now!  What follows is my story about 2 home runs in one night.  Both photos have been in several magazines and have received over 50,000 views each on Flickr despite being uploaded when I was totally unknown there.


One reason I go for home runs is not just that I am hoping for a good photo.  It is because I live over 1 hour away from the coast.  There is a series of mountains between me and the coast and it can be hot and dry at my house and cool and foggy at the coast.  I can't just look out the window and be there in 10 minutes if it looks good.  And it may look bad (clear and boring) at my house and good at the coast!  I would probably have 10 times the number of good shots if I lived close to my subjects!  So I have to be good at reading the weather forecasts, sat. photos, webcams and anything else I can find.


High clouds can help any sunrise or sunset shoot because they can soften the light and can also turn red just as the sun sets.  And that red can filter down to the low fog at the Golden Gate, making it more red than it would be otherwise.  The problem, as I mentioned in the previous blog post, is that fog tends to form in California when warm dry air travels over the cold ocean.  And warm dry air usually happens during clear weather.  So when this rare combination of high clouds AND fog happens, I try to get out there!


So, after I arrived and saw how the light and fog were behaving about 30 minutes before sunset, I decided that my best view would be from the Northeast side of the Bridge near Sausalito.  I also decided to stick with this position even if it looked like things might be better elsewhere.  Conditions were changing too quickly for me to run around.


Below is my first photo as the sun began to set.  The clouds were above the fog and there were openings in the clouds, letting the light shine through.  So things were looking good.  Imagine this scene below with clear skies above the fog.  It would not be as interesting.  I got super low to get some mossy dark rocks in the foreground and some water movement.  Still, the light was harsh and bright, so this was really a practice shot.  The following photos (except the two good ones) are straight from the RAW files with all settings on zero..  


(I am showing these photos a bit wider than the blog column, so you can see more detail even though they do not fit perfectly!)

As the sun got lower to the right of the bridge, the colors became warmer and the light was softer.  The fog was covering the south tower completely.  I was hoping that the fog would clear just a bit.  There was still enough light for a short exposure to show the water movement, but at this point I was still hoping for things to improve.  Don't let these moments slip by or you may miss the big event.  This is when you should be looking for where you want to be as sunset approaches.

.
It was getting darker and I was starting to wonder if anything would happen at all.  I had to go to longer exposure times so I arranged the foreground rock to make it interesting as a long exposure.  There is a bit of red in the sky and the south tower was emerging from the fog, so I had some hope at this moment.  Also, I could see an opening in the clouds to the right of this frame and it was moving in the direction of the setting sun.  More hope!

.
Below, the red light of sunset finally began to appear.  The hole in the clouds also came in to view on the right side of the frame.  It was bright so I tried to avoid it but in the end, it opened up a lot so I had to angle the grad filters to make that area darker. There were still about 10 minutes before the sun set, so things were looking good.

.
The hole continued to open up and more red was hitting the higher clouds and the streaking fog.  This is about a 30-second exposure and the fog moves at about 30 miles per hour (50kph) through the gate.  This is not the calm fog that you may know.  So long exposures can show a LOT of movement!  I angled the lens downward to show more foreground, and the lens distortion made the north tower bend a lot!  I made sure to make the picture at a wider focal length so that I could bend it back in photoshop.  You lose some around the edges when you bend it back, so be careful pointing up or down when shooting anything vertical!  Also, the bridge lights had just turned on and they become very important as it gets darker.  Watch out if you have two grad filters on with bright artificial lights, you can get doubled reflected light artifacts!  After this, I took off one grad, leaving one on the lens.
.

.
The light was getting REALLY good!  So I set up for a 2-minute exposure.  About halfway through, in came a large shipping container vessel.  For some reason they always seem to come through at sunset.  Sometimes so many come through that you can miss an entire sunset and come back with nothing! I was not happy at this moment.  

.
Fortunately, the light held on for just a couple more minutes.  I pointed the lens upward to show more of the impressive sky.  As soon as the ship left the frame, I did another 2-minute exposure.  Any more and the lights become too bright and ruin the photo.  I want everything to be properly exposed.  I was really happy when I looked at the back of the camera.  I knew I had a good one.  This was my first upload to Flickr and it has over 1600 faves as of Oct. 2010.
.

.
After that, the light faded.  However at the Golden Gate Bridge and other bridges and skylines, there are really two sunsets (or sunrises).  The second one comes when the bridge lights dominate, so I was not about to pack up and head home.

.
Then, as I was waiting for the bridge lights to get bright enough for a good reflection shot, the moon emerged from behind the clouds.  I must admit that I had not seen the moon.  For some reason I thought it would be lower and out of sight on this evening.  But who am I to complain!  I kept one grad on the lens and set up another two-minute exposure.  I let the crescent moon get completely overexposed because I wanted to show the moonlight on the clouds.  Some people think that this is a full moon that is inserted in Photoshop because the sun is off to the right!  But it is really just a thin crescent.  It moved a lot during the 2-minute exposure too, which enhances the effect of it looking like a full moon.


I could not believe how many elements were in the frame at once.  The moon lit the high clouds, there was still a bit of red from the sunset, there was red in the fog from the bridge lights, and the water had that typical reflection happening.  Amazing, two good shots in one evening!
.

.
In the very next 2-minute exposure I started just after the last one, the sky became dark.  Too dark for my taste.  I like to see some blue in the sky.  Also, the bridge lights become too harsh.  So that was it for the evening after the exposure below was finished.
.

.
This all happened in about 30 minutes.  So you must be ready for anything.  I did not worry about calculating exposure times as it got dark.  Once it was dark and I had no foreground, I set the lens to F8 for the sharpest photo I could get while focused at infinity.  Then, each exposure got longer and longer.  Soon I was at 2 minutes and I stayed with that because the bridge light would get overexposed.  No light meter is necessary because of the gradual lengthening of each exposure.  Once I was going for long exposures, the exposure times went something like (in secs.) 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 120, 120.  Since there is no time to calculate once you are past 15 seconds or so, just make the next exposure longer than you think it should be!


That's it.  Go out and give it a shot!


Patrick





My fine-art website
Learn from the old masters with my 325-page e-book!
Hi-res downloads and framed photo prints
Twitter
Flickr