Difference in color between sunset and sunrise

[mickeymao]

I'm painting a full-color graphic novel that has a lot of dawn & dusk shots, and I've been looking out the windows and studying photos to try to figure out whether there are really any differences in the color of the light/sky around sunrise vs. sunset.

My intuitive premise was that the light at sunset tends to be a bit warmer, more orange, with a purple cast to the shadows, whereas sunrise is a bit cooler, pinker, with duller shadows, and the sky doesn't pick up as much red. If that is a common perception, that'd probably be good enough for the book. But the more I look, the less sure I am that it is true, or that there is any real atmospheric reason why it would be. I'm wondering if anyone has studied this issue and wants to share their opinion.

Thanks!

[kev ferrara]

It depends on where you are in the world, and what season it is and what temperature it is out and what the weather is like, the humidity, etc.

If you look up a hundred different great artworks that contain sunrises and sunsets, you will see a hundred different color and value schemes. Off hand, I can't think of a color scheme for sunrises and sunsets I haven't seen.

Google: Images: Painting Sunrise Tonalist

Scan through the thumbnails of what comes up when you google the above and you'll see yellow, purple, blue, green, orange, etc.

While it is important to do research, use your emotions, imagination and intuitions as your guide when you actually get down to it. In art, emotions and science wrestle all the time.

kev

[Elwell]

In general, there's more moisture in the atmosphere in the morning and more dust in the evening, which will effect the colors slightly.
Clouds are more common at sunset than sunrise.
But really, Kev's right. Emotional and pictorial truth are more important than meteorology.
Whilst the last members were signing it Doctor Franklin looking towards the President's Chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that Painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. “I have,” said he, “often and often in the course of the Session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun.”
At the signing of the United States Constitution, Journal of the Constitutional Convention (17 September 1787)
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

[Mr_S_14]

Theoretically more polution in the evening from people driving around all day may closer to the red, The morning has less pollution because well, it's the morning and the pollution has settled a bit. There is less pollution so perhaps more although not much more yellowiss or towards the blue. Sometimes in the evenings here, when there's snow on the mountains(east), when the sun is setting, the peaks become bright pink and crimsons from light shining on them from the west.
Obviously the best way to find out the difference is to wake up early before the sunrise, climb on your roof, and watch the sunrise.

[Baron Impossible]

Personally I'd include more mist and pastel colours at sunrise and sharper, more saturated colours at sunset.

[DavePalumbo]

yeah, generally cooler and paler says sunrise to me while warmer and more saturated says sunset. just in terms of feel

[Sorknes]

As people have said, you can have every colour in both setting and rising sun. Think more about what you want your image to convey, and pick colours from there. Mood, composition, and of course what kind of place it is. Up north you can see them with almost just turquise and yellow, down south they can be bleeding red.

Where I live, I can guess the season and how far in the season we are on how pale the sunrise and sunset is. Bleak but with awsome subtle colour changes in the winter, yellow and orange in summer, spring and autumn have purple and strong pink. Late summer/towards autumn gives dark reds. If I'm closer to a town it'll be darker, if I'm away from town there's no pollution changing the colours.

Think about your picture. Then were it's set and when. Take what fits best, you can't go that wrong, unless it's set in a very specific place that your viewers knows well enough to see it's wrong. (I.e you don't paint Equatorial suns in the Arctic ;) )

[mickeymao]

Thank you all for the input! Since a common theme is that geography is important, I'll add that it's set in and around Greece. Unfortunately I haven't been able to make a pilgrimage there for direct observation, though Flickr and Google have given me massive amounts of reference.

[Sorknes]

Mediterranian areas has in general very orangish both sunrise and sunsets, and less variations between the seasons than Scandinavia and upper Russia, but not as strong colours as Equator, I would think. :)

And yeah, google images should give you a ton of references, it's photographed a lot, hehe. The Greek sky would have about the same colours as Spain and Italy, so you can search for that too. :) Just be a lil wary about the images, there's a lot made for attracting tourists, and they're sometimes filtered and shopped quite a bit, heh.

[CaNiBaLe]

I think that heavily polluted cities (I live in one) tend to be more orange at sunset than sunrise, maybe this because more air pollution + heat occur mostly during the morning and day, leaving at the end of the day a much more polluted air than in the morning... but I'm not really sure, it's just really different where I live... my 10 cents

[J Wilson]

I think your first reaction was a good one. I'd go cooler in the mornings and warmer at sunset.

Additionally, if it's for a graphic novel with a lot of sunsets and rises, it might help to just simplify things down to a visual "code" to help the reader understand what is going on. Usually it's just better to make sure the story telling is clear, rather than being strictly observational. Even if some mornings might be warmer, and some evenings cooler, it would be better to stick to your established "code" so that readers know which is which.