Unusually saturated sunset over Kalamunda
The following saturated sunset occurred over Kalamunda this evening. I very rarely bother with taking 'postcard' pictures of sunsets but this one was so vivid that I just had to zoom inside a grab the K-3. It was fading so quickly that I did not really have time to make any adjustments to the camera so the picture was taken at my 'camera at rest' settings of f8 with an ISO of 800.
As is normal when shooting directly into brightness the camera metering has over-reacted to the bright centre and taken the shot a bit darker than I would have usually—had I had the time to make some adjustments; but even so it has worked out rather well. I tried winding the brightness up a little in the post processing with Photoshop Elements but that made the shot look washed out and destroyed that solid gold colour on the clouds, so I left it as it was.
I think that a big part of the reason for the unusual saturation of the setting sun colours on the clouds was that the sky above and behind was covered with dark storm-like clouds. Behind me it looked like an electrical storm was suddenly going to break out, but it didn't. My theory is that the brooding black overcast sky above and behind contributed to the solid colouring. Also, as it was pointed out by my son's finance, there had been a fire down Kwinana way so it is also possible the smoke in the air also influenced the colouring; although smoke generally introduced a red colour cast rather than a gold one.
Pity I couldn't have taken this shot from a slightly better viewpoint—like either the Kalamunda Zig Zag or Lesmurdie look-outs. Such is life.
It looks better full size so be sure to click on the image and see it at 1,500 pixel width (assuming you are using a desktop computer/monitor).
Barry.