Samsung Sunset Photography: Settings for Bright Skies

Auto will usually do a decent job with recent Galaxy flagships thanks to its multiple frame blending in Photo mode. Sunsets are tricky to capture as you have the brightest and darkest parts of the image next to each other, so it’s tough to know which to expose for.

But what if you want to get a bit more out of Auto’s rendition, richer skies, say? Or, what if the sun is actually in the shot?

Sunset settings by situation

Unless otherwise specified in the lens column, these are all for the main camera on a Galaxy phone. Treat them as starting points for the first frame (feel free to adjust as needed).

• According to Samsung’s Pro mode guide, if you manually specify the shutter speed in Pro mode, the EV (exposure value) will depend on both the shutter speed and ISO sensitivity. As such, ISO sensitivity can’t be set to Auto.
• For shooting conditions listed in the disc row, specify both ISO sensitivity and shutter speed and check the brightness of the image on the preview. For other shooting conditions, leave ISO sensitivity and shutter speed set to Auto and adjust the exposure as needed using exposure compensation.

Why the sky blows out, and what each mode does about it

Exposure compensation is handy when you want to fool your camera’s metering system (which tries to average the frame to mid-grey) into thinking your image is darker or brighter than it really is. Point your camera at a dark headland under a bright sky and the meter will insist on exposing for the land, blowing out the sky to a blinding white near the sun. Lower the exposure and you’re effectively telling the meter that the sky is the important part of the photo and exposing accordingly.

HDR (high dynamic range) photography captures multiple images at different exposures and blends them together, retaining detail in the darkest and brightest parts of the scene. It’s how your Galaxy’s Photo mode manages to retain detail in sunsets and other high-contrast images without any manual input on your part (and why you won’t find an HDR mode in the Camera app, as HDR has been baked into Photo mode since One UI 4.0 rolled out to flagships). If you find HDR images too flat, you can switch off Auto HDR in One UI 9’s Camera Assistant (Camera settings > Camera Assistant > Photos > Auto HDR). Our HDR guide explains the changes.

Pro mode doesn’t benefit from HDR (according to Samsung’s camera FAQ) and takes a single image, so you’re on your own to avoid blown highlights or murky shadows. Expert RAW is a middle-ground option: multiple images are combined but the result is a 16-bit linear DNG image with plenty of highlight headroom for post-processing.

1. 1

   Tap the sky and lower the brightness

   In Photo mode, tap on a brighter area of the sky (e.g. clouds near the sun). Drag the brightness slider (next to the focus circle) down until the clouds have some colour back.

2. 2

   Lock the exposure before you recompose

   Samsung claims in the user guide for the S26 that you can tap and hold down on an area to lock the AF/AE. When you see the AF/AE lock indicator, release your finger. The AF/AE lock will remain after capturing an image.

3. 3

   Split focus and exposure if the foreground matters

   On the S26 series you need to hold down the touch focus/lock until the frame splits into two (AF and AE) and drag the AE frame to an area of sky. Leave the focus point on the foreground.

4. 4

   Check for clipping in Pro mode

   The S26’s Pro mode has a handy exposure monitor, where overexposed areas are highlighted with a distinctive colour or pattern in the live view. Use this to shorten your shutter speed until the markings disappear from the clouds.

5. 5

   Shoot a short series

   Shoot three frames at different exposures. The colour peaks quickly, and it’s easier to select afterwards rather than guess at the time.

Which lens for which sunset

With an ultra-wide-angle lens the sun will be relatively small in size and appear as a very bright spot, with lots of sky visible.

Using a longer focal length from further away will give you a bigger sun in relation to the landscape and you may well fill part of the frame with the solar disc.

• On phones without a telephoto camera (Galaxy A phones, Z Flip phones, S25 Edge), get as close as you can to the foreground object and use the 2x mode, which is just a crop of the main camera’s image.
• The Galaxy S24, S25 and S26, S25 FE and S26 FE, and Z Fold7 and Fold8 Ultra have a 3x telephoto camera (67-75mm equivalent according to GSMArena).
• The Galaxy S24 Ultra, S25 Ultra and S26 Ultra also have a 5x telephoto camera (111mm equivalent according to GSMArena), which could be handy for framing a large sun in the distance above mountains or hills. The 10x mode is just a crop of the 5x camera’s image.
• The 0.6x mode is on every current Galaxy and works well if there’s lots of cloud in the sky. Try to avoid having the sun close to the edge of the frame at 0.6x, as lens flare and distortion will be most noticeable there.
• As the light fades in afterglow, you’ll generally get the best results from the 1x camera as it uses the phone’s biggest image sensor.

Handheld telephoto sunsets are fine too. Just make sure you use a fast enough shutter speed to avoid camera shake (your camera will magnify any shake the longer the focal length and the smaller the sensor). The telephoto lens guide explains when cropping in with the main camera makes more sense than switching lenses.

What goes wrong at sunset

Samsung’s Scene Optimizer isn’t a bug either. It recognises sunrises and sunsets as scenes (according to Samsung’s support site), which is great for sharing images straight away, but annoying if you’re keen to process the colours yourself. On a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with One UI 9 (checked in November 2026), look for Scene detection under Photo enhancer in the Camera settings. The Scene Optimizer guide covers older versions.

Auto white balance can also pull sunsets back toward neutral, so consider setting it to Daylight (5200 to 5600K) to retain the colour you saw. The white balance guide has Kelvin values for other light.

Editing a sunset in Gallery or Snapseed

Samsung’s Gallery app comes with a perfectly serviceable editor for getting the most out of those sunsets. Tap the pencil icon to bring it up and start tweaking the colours (Samsung describes this as including brightness and contrast as well as saturation). It works best to dial down the brightness a touch, then add some contrast, to stop the puffy clouds around the sun losing their definition.

If you fancy going further, Google’s free photo editor Snapseed has tools such as Curves and White Balance, and 9to5Google spotted Selective and Brush options for targeting specific areas in its report on the new-for-Android version 4.0 back in May 2026. There’s also a handy new Dehaze tool.

1. 1

   Set white balance first

   Start by setting the mood, warm or otherwise, as this will dictate the rest of your adjustments.

2. 2

   Bring the sky down

   To bring out detail in the clouds next to the sun, use either the Brush or Selective tool to slightly lower the brightness.

3. 3

   Lift the land gently

   Don’t use Shadows to lighten the image as this will have an effect on the sky too, making it grey. Use a brush instead.

4. 4

   Check the saturation

   Sunset colours clip quickly so if the reds in the clouds start to lose definition, drop the saturation a touch using the orange and red sliders in the Color HSL tool.

Lightroom can work nicely with Expert RAW files, but you do need a Premium plan for raw editing and masking in Lightroom. Our Lightroom vs Snapseed comparison sets out what each one does for free.

Dawn photography is similar in terms of the best exposure practices, but there’s a little more planning that needs to happen prior to leaving the house. The sunrise guide covers the blue hour bit and the planning apps, and in the silhouette guide the dark foreground becomes the subject.