I occasionally teach photo workshops, and I spend quite a bit of time talking about sunrise and sunset photography. The most important thing I cover is to be sure to find a subject other than just the sunrise or sunset. It’s great to have dramatic skies, but the sky itself is actually a pretty boring subject. Try to find something else of interest and let the photo be about that. The sky itself is the seasoning – not the sauce.
I also talk quite a bit about the different times of twilight. My favorite time by far is civil twilight. That’s the half hour or so before the sun rises or after the sun sets. In fact, if you look at the landscape photos on my website nearly all of them were taken during civil twilight. You can actually get the best looking skies during that time, but also, the foreground light is much softer.
