I recently planned a photo trip to capture sunset and twilight images of the Lincoln Memorial around the fall equinox. I chose this period because the sun would be setting due west on the horizon almost directly behind the Memorial as seen from the opposite end of the Reflection Pool. I set up my tripod, along with three other photographers who evidently had a similar idea, at the edge of Reflection Pool in front of the World War II Memorial. I decided to use a Canon 70-200 mm L IS USM II lens to get the proper framing and perspective for the image on my Canon R5 mirrorless camera.
Based on my research using The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) app, the sun would go down on this evening (September 19, 2021) right over the top of the Memorial.
The red pin is my tripod location, and the two orange lines represents the sun’s position and elevation on the horizon at the chosen moment on the timeline (thin line), and the sun’s position at sunset (thick line). TPE showed the sun at 270 degrees North and an elevation of 1.5 degrees above the horizon for the start of sunset. As you can see below, this made for a beautiful image as the sun dropped partially below the Memorial’s roof line at just the right moment! I stopped the lens down to f18 to get sunburst as the sun slid half way behind the memorial.
The sunset images were rather difficult to expose due to the intense light of the sun and the backlit cloud layer. I had to take a second shot later on in the sunset-twilight sequence (when the light was more even) which was used to restore the shadow areas of the Memorial.
As the sun slipped below the horizon at the right edge of the Memorial, more colors exploded into the sky from the backlit clouds above the horizon.
This sunset image features a second exposure of the Memorial, taken about twenty minutes later that captured lighting on the front exterior of the building and statue of Lincoln. Portions of this second image were blended to restore detail in the deeply shadowed areas of the sunset image.
As sunset turned into twilight, having the sun set directly behind the Memorial resulted in some nice residual colors in the sky as the light faded and day turned to night.
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