I was returning from a hike to the Fairy Lochs with the sun rapidly descending towards the horizon. Some distant cloud cover prevented a truly magnificent sunset but the colours in the sky which remained were still impressive. I have very little time to set up my tripod, make sure my SAL 16-50mm/2.8 lenses was mounted properly onto the NEX-7 via a LA-EA1 adapter, and to set out to find a suitable spot to capture the scene. Luckily there is a beach next to the Shieldaig hotel which was at low tide at the time. I quickly set up the tripod, composed the capture both the sky and beach, and focussed manually, very easy to do using zoomed liveview. I took a few bracketed shots to make sure that I did not blow the sky, using both the live and post-shot histogram. I finally retreated under an onslaught of midges.

After importing the file into Lightroom, I was keen to see just how much detail I had managed to retain in a single frame, from the setting sun to the dimly lit beach. Cranking up the highlight and shadow recovery sliders, I was pleased to see that I could bring out detail both in the sky and the ground without too much trouble. A bit of clarity and vibrance completed the treatment of the photo. Some licence has been taken with the interpretation of the colours, but this more faithfully represents the impression of being there rather than actual photometric values.