Along with clouds, sunrises and sunsets are some of the most recorded time lapse subjects.  That’s why this tutorial is dedicated solely to knowing where and when sunrises and sunsets will occur.

The simplest method of knowing when and where to expect a sunrise or sunset is to visit this website from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration:

NOAA Solar Calculator

It’s a Google Maps mashup that lets you find any location in the world and see, with colored lines, where the sun will appear to rise and set.

Step One

The default map should show North America, but it’s possible to scroll to any part of the world.  By zooming in on your location, the place marker should automatically relocate to where you want it.  You can also click and drag the marker for find tuning.

Step Two

Once your marker is in the desired location, make sure that your time zone is correct.  Time is calculated from Greenwich Mean, or UTC.  California, where I’m located, is -8 UTC.  Make sure to adjust for Daylight Savings Time if appropriate.  If everything is adjusted correctly, your day and time should now be right.

Step Three

The bottom frame should now show the sunrise and sunset times.  Click in the boxes below the times in order to show Sunrise (green) and Sunset (red) on the map.  If it’s light outside, you can also select Current (yellow) for the sun’s present location.

Using the Map

The map is pretty simple to use.  For example, I can see from the map below that the sun will appear to rise from north Sacramento when viewed from Davis, California.

This method of locating sunrise and sunset locations is more accurate than simply pointing your camera east or west, but it’s limited in accuracy if your location changes while your in the field.  I’ll show a more accurate method in next week’s post.

Here’s another video I made on my day trip to Tahoe.  I used HDR in order to capture the highlights and shadows, but forgot the first rule of HDR–have plenty of free memory. I’m already working on a couple of posts for the coming weeks, but I plan to do a multi-part article on HDR soon.

There’s some flicker in this video even though I used a deflicker filter. I’m attempting to switch from Windows Movie Maker to VirtualDub and trying to figure out too many things at once.  I’m sure I could have cut down on the flicker if I had adjusted the filter, but producing a working video is enough of an accomplishment for this week.

This was my first sunset video. I took it south of town next to a levee that extended for miles through fields. It really shows the importance of composition in video. I like the lone tree, the pattern of the recently tilled fields, and the curvy diagonal line of the mountains in the background. I also find that 1/3 or less of the frame should be filled by the ground, unless something in the foreground serves as the focal point. I’m including a still photo of the tree and Venus that I took by holding the shutter open for fifteen seconds at f/2.7 after I finished the video. Incidentally, that’s me walking along the levee in the video. I didn’t realize I was in frame.

This was the second video I made. I was still using my camera’s built-in intervalometer so it took over three hours to capture the 183 photos used in this video. The one minute intervals didn’t allow me to capture the ships passing under the Golden Gate Bridge except as jittery shapes. This was my first use of a tripod, so my video was much less twitchy than the previous one.

If I had to do this again, I’d change the aspect ratio to 16:9, zoom in on the bridge, cut off the water in favor of the sky, and shoot at three second intervals. I’d also wait for a less hazy day.