Want to Capture a Blazing, Flaming Sunset Photo?

You have to know the right meteorological conditions, or have a neighbor who’s a meteorologist, or use a program written by a trio of meteorologists from Penn State.

The upcoming photo competition on textures got me to thinking about capturing the shading and coloration differences in clouds.  “Simple,” I said to myself, “just go outside and snap a sunset.”  The problem is that clouds put on wonderful light shows on their own schedules, which have not been published until now.  A little research uncovered a handy web site providing a map of the US, colored to indicate the probability of a “good” sunset (and sunrise).

Penn State News Article
http://news.psu.edu/story/385020/2015/12/15/academics/forecasting-beauty-student-alums-make-model-predict-vivid-sunsets

Sunset/rise Forecast Map
https://sunsetwx.com/

And for the geeky (and not so geeky) crowd, here are a few other interesting sites.

Great Photos and Explanations (zackiedawg, DPReview)
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/41028410

Techy Stuff on Clouds (Bruce Wunderlich, Digital Photography School)
http://digital-photography-school.com/predicting-dramatic-sunsets/

Cloud Type Graphic (helps one understand Wunderlich’s article, Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cloud_types_en.svg

Happy Snapping!