If, like many photographers, your list of favorite subjects includes sunsets, try going abstract by rendering them as blocks of color. Alfonso Calero, a pro photographer and photo tour leader from Australia, credits his success at this to his source of inspiration: the paintings of Mark Rothko.
“I get the color effect by blurring the scenes with slow shutter speeds and camera movement,” Calero explains. He gets the perfect effect by bracketing the speeds of both the shutter and camera movement. Other tips for producing Rothko-like sunsets:
• Rotate the camera on a tripod to maintain a straight horizon line. If your tripod head has a spirit level, use it to keep the scene plumb.
• Adjust color intensity by bracketing color saturation and exposure compensation.
• Use a Neutral-Density filter to achieve slower shutter speeds in bright light.