why are sunsets yellow, orange & red?, a photo from Ilocos Norte, Ilocos

Photographer's Note

Sunset 101: When the sun is high in the sky, it generally appears white because all wavelengths of visible light reach an observer's eyes with almost equal intensity. As the sun sinks toward the horizon, sunlight enters the atmosphere at a much lower angle and consequently sunlight has to travel through a longer distance of atmosphere to reach the eye. The thick layer of air, dust and haze scatters away much of the shorter wavelengths (blue & violet) and the only light which penetrates through the atmosphere are the longer wavelengths of light (yellow, orange and red) which produce colorful sunsets. Red sunsets are often observed from a beach because of the high concentration of salt particles suspended in the air over the oceans.

Where to find the best sunsets? It's easy, the best sunsets are captured on TE! Just browse around and you'll see almost everybody has their own favorite sunset pic.

Ok now, about the pic: taken at Pagudpud beach, Ilocos Norte when the sun is about to set. That's it!

digi-mom, poulinp, snuggleaphagus, rage_tm, vapours, supereira, jhm, polongi, Sasha, mayumi, flip89, emercamaya, aznegrao, dmitriy55 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

digi-mom (1064) 2004-11-08 19:23

Gorgeous colours. I like the simplicity here - just a touch of shoreline and hanging palm frond (to give it a personality and a location on this earth) and mostly just the sun and water. Together with the note this is truly learning about our world through photography, even though "just another sunset". ;o)

Thanks for posting, professor. :o)

rage_tm (623) 2004-11-09 5:08

Hi Alford, this one's a winner for me. Nice colors and perspective. Am not much disturbed with leaves from above(though it provides us some scale), but i think its still best if it can be avoided(you can use clone tool from PS if you want it removed). As i said, it doesnt add harm to this image.
Just including this as one of my favorites. Beautiful image and useful notes too.

supereira (9576) 2004-11-09 5:38

Beautiful shot!I like a lot the colors and the contrast between them.Great sky,very good clouds and colors.I like the reflections the sun in the water.Great view.

jhm (211738) 2004-11-09 7:09

Alford, I find this a very great picture, I like of the light beam on it water, the clouds an the sky with the different colour tints its beautiful, a pity Alford, the horizon is not horizontal, but my compliments for this!
Thanks for sharing.

coasties (0) 2004-11-17 4:38

Hello Alford

You have managed to capture the mood of the sun reflecting on the ocean very well. The golden colour of the sunset is superb. The only problem is that the branches at the top of the picture are a bit distracting.

mayumi (142) 2004-11-17 20:19

That was a very thoughtful explanation about how the atmosphere affect colors! Thank you. Beautiful sunset indeed, despite being "just another one of them". The colors here in your picture brings to mind serenity...peace of mind, body and soul....like the stillness before one closes his eyes to sleep. Thanks for sharing!!

aznegrao (10316) 2005-01-04 9:17

As texturas e as cores estão excelentes nesta imagem que transmite muita paz. Pena que o horizonte esta um pouco inclinado. Mas isso não tira o brilho da imagem. Saudações Alford.

dmitriy55 (275) 2005-01-12 23:56

Heh, great lesson about sunsets. I definitely agree that TE is the place to be. :) In terms of purely golden sunsets, I'd have to say that those are pretty darn rare in the northern latitudes where I happen to reside. Thanx for the view!

As of the photo itself, I'd have to commend on the great clarity of the water ripples. The focusing was definitely nice, especially with such a compact camera. Big question though: any post-processing?

Crosman (121) 2008-11-03 16:55 [Comment]