The first rule everyone learns is “keep the sun behind the photographer”. For a sunset portrait I do the opposite: the sun goes behind you, in the frame, and a flash lights your face. That is the only way to keep both — the sky and you.
Point a camera at a sunset with a person in front of it and the camera has to choose. Expose for the sky and the face turns into a dark silhouette. Expose for the face and the sky burns out to white — the colour you came for is gone. A good sunset portrait needs both at once: a face that looks like a face, and a sun and sky that are not overexposed.
The flash solves it. I set the camera for the sky — dark enough that the sun, the clouds and the colour stay in — and the flash lights your face to match. Nothing is overexposed and nothing is underexposed: the sky keeps its colour and you keep your face.
These photographs are of Beata, my wife, on 6 October 2026 on Cerro Gordo, above La Herradura. The sun set at 19:52 that day. The session started about an hour earlier, in soft blue light under cloud, and ended as the sun touched the sea — the last frames are from the final few minutes.
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At Cerro Gordo you feel like you are at the top of the world, with the rock cliffs, the beaches and the sea far below you. Beata and I got married here at sunset — see our wedding album.
No. That is what the flash is for: your face is lit while the sun and the sky keep their colour.
No, the flash is not unpleasant.
Yes — a portrait or couple session can be planned around sunset. See portraits and couples, and check your date in the booking calendar.
Dates go early for May, June and September. Send the date, the place and the feel you have in mind — I reply as soon as possible, guaranteed.
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