A Skyline Sunset

Photo of the Day

It is funny how some things work. Saturday I was at the White Sox game in Chicago. While grabbing some pizza in town I saw a post on Facebook from the Photo Brigade showing the sun setting behind the Chicago Skyline. I have wanted to make this image for a while now, and it would not be too far out of our way. Once we decided to head to the Dunes the clouds started rolling in. At one point I had written off seeing the sun again. The clouds broke just in time foe me to make the image that I had in mind when I first saw the scene. The clouds just over the horizon really lit up giving us a show long after the sun went down. It was a great sunset that gave me many great images including the photo above which might just be my favorite photo that I have made this year.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Technical Data

For this photo I just wanted to tweak it a bit. I increased the blacks and the contrast a bit. That made the hazy buildings a black silhouette. I was also 30+ miles from the skyline so I performed a small crop to get a little closer. I wanted my 300mm at the baseball game, but I did not want to carry it all day. I really wanted it for this scene.

Bonus Video

Once again I made some video while shooting the sunset. I knew that it would not show the skyline because it is wide angle, but it does show the great colors in the sky. The video just kind of shows the different angles during the different times that I took. Had I been thinking ahead I would have made a time lapse of the sunset. The clouds were amazing. I think that I would like to try a time lapse with my Mark III of the actual sun setting behind the city in the future. Zoomed into the level above would be amazing to see. That may take some planning to pick a date good for seeing it happen.