Sunset Wall Art: Where I've Found Australia's Best Coastal Sunsets
Why I Keep Chasing Coastal Sunsets
A good coastal sunset lasts about four minutes. Not the golden hour before it, and not the glow afterwards, but the window where the colour is doing something worth photographing. If the drone is not already up and moving by then, you have missed it.
That is why there are seventeen sunset pieces in my collection and not a hundred. Most evenings do not deliver. The ones below did.
This is where I shot each of them and what is happening in the frame. If you want to skip ahead, the full sunset wall art collection is here.
First, Why Sunsets Are Hard to Print
A sunset is a single enormous gradient. It runs from a blown-out sun down through orange and pink into dark water, sometimes across a very short distance in the frame. Gradients are where cheap sensors and cheap printing fall apart. You get banding, where the smooth transition breaks into visible steps like a topographic map, and once you see it on a wall you cannot unsee it.
Two things stop that. The first is capture. I shoot on a DJI Mavic 4 Pro with a 100MP Hasselblad camera, which gives enough tonal information that the gradient survives being enlarged to 150cm across. The second is the edit. A hazy evening frame has no true black in it anywhere, so left alone it prints flat and grey. Putting a real black point back without crushing the shadow detail in the water is most of the work.
So when you are looking at sunset prints anywhere, look at the sky near the sun. If you can see steps in the colour, walk away.
1. Duranbah, New South Wales
Duranbah sits beside the Tweed River mouth, right on the border. It holds swell when the beaches either side have gone soft, which is why there was still a full lineup on it the evening I flew.
The Point
The best sky of the evening. Deep pink cloud stacked over the point, the ocean gone flat and silver beneath it, and a wave wrapping around the rocks below. I had the drone up and moving before the colour arrived, which is the only way you catch one.
Strongest colour in the set, and the one I would hang if I only hung one.
The Lineup
A line of surfers sitting out the back with one paddler pushing through the whitewater to join them, the swell arriving in clean parallel lines under a peach afterglow. The water shifts from pale sand-green in the shallows to deep teal past the break.
If you want the sunset and the surf in one frame, this is it. There is more on reading a shot like this in my guide to surf photography wall art.
The River Mouth
I turned the drone inland for this one. Training walls reaching out into turquoise water, the town catching the last warm light along the far bank.
The Breakwall
I dropped the drone right down for this one, low enough to get the pandanus into the front of the frame. You get a sense of standing in the scrub looking out rather than floating above it.
The rest of the evening sits in the sunset wall art collection.
2. Busselton Jetty, Western Australia
Geographe Bay faces north, tucked in behind Cape Naturaliste. The swell never really gets in here, so the water lies down.
The Boat Sheds
The blue boat sheds sitting where the jetty leaves the sand, the timber deck running out, and the sun going down at the far end of it, all in one line. If you have spent time in Busselton, this is the view you already know.
There were still people walking the deck and sitting on the sand when I took it, which stops it feeling like an empty postcard.
After the Sun Goes
Most people pack up when the sun drops. The ten minutes after are usually better. The heat comes out of the colour and the bay goes silver-blue.
I kept the drone up and shot down the line of the jetty. From that angle it stops being a landmark and becomes a line, running dead straight out until it disappears into the haze. Low light after sunset is where sensors normally fall apart, so this one is a real test of the file.
The Full Jetty
Busselton Jetty runs 1.8 kilometres into the bay, the longest timber-piled jetty in the southern hemisphere. Walking it takes the better part of half an hour each way, and the jetty trust runs a train and an underwater observatory at the far end if you would rather not.
What you cannot see from the deck is the sand. From up here the banks come through the water as pale ribbons running the length of the bay, and the jetty cuts straight across all of them.
The Bay Itself
No jetty in this one. The sun sitting on the water with a long gold trail running back toward the sand, cloud banks catching orange overhead, and a couple of yachts at anchor. Not a single wave in the frame.
The rest of the South West is in the South West WA collection, and there is more on the coast in the 15 best Western Australia beaches.
3. Trigg, Perth
Perth gets the best sunsets in the country and it is not particularly close. The sun goes down over open ocean with nothing in the way, which is a geographic advantage the east coast does not have.
Trigg Beach at Sunset
Late in the day the light comes in low along Perth's northern beaches and the limestone reef at Trigg turns warm against the water. This frame includes the suburb behind the dune and the road running the length of it.
That is deliberate. This is Perth's northern corridor as the people who live there see it: houses, a coast road, and one of the best breaks in the metro area a hundred metres from someone's front door. There is a wider list in the 9 best beaches in Perth.
Trigg Point
The same evening, further along the point. Warmer, quieter, more about the reef structure than the suburb.
Both sit in the Perth collection. If you want the warm palette without a horizon in it, Ocean Sunset Framed Canvas and Sunset Ocean Waves are pure water and light.
Which Sunset Print for Which Room
Sunset images are the easiest coastal prints to live with, because the palette is warm rather than cold. That makes them more forgiving than a bright midday beach shot, which can feel clinical in the wrong light.
Living rooms and above a sofa. The strong-colour frames: the Duranbah point or the Busselton boat sheds. Both have a clear focal point and hold a big wall on their own.
Bedrooms. The quieter ones. The Busselton jetty after the sun has gone, or the Duranbah headland.
Hallways and entryways. The jetty running to the horizon, because the long line pulls your eye down the space rather than stopping it.
Warm rooms. If you have oak, rattan, timber or brass in the room, sunset prints in an oak frame will sit better than anything blue in the collection. More on placement in beach wall art for living rooms and beach wall art canvas Australia.
Canvas or Paper for a Sunset?
Short version: paper, if you are going to frame it properly.
Sunsets are all gradient and very little texture, and fine art paper holds a smooth gradient better than canvas does. The canvas weave sits on top of the image. On a reef or surf shot that texture adds something. On a pure colour gradient it competes.
That said, canvas comes ready to hang with no glass and no reflections, which matters in a bright room. If the wall gets afternoon sun, canvas will look better every day of the year regardless of the theory.
The full version is in canvas or fine art paper.
Wrap Up
Have a look through the sunset wall art collection and see which coastline is yours. If you want the process behind these frames, it is in from sand to canvas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where were these sunset photographs taken?
Duranbah Beach on the New South Wales and Queensland border, Busselton Jetty in Western Australia's South West, and Trigg Beach in Perth. I flew and photographed every one of them personally.
What camera do you shoot on?
A DJI Mavic 4 Pro with a 100MP Hasselblad camera. The resolution is what lets a sunset gradient survive being printed at 150cm across without banding.
What sizes do the sunset prints come in?
28x36cm, 90x60cm, 100x75cm and 150x100cm, on both fine art paper and stretched canvas.
Should I choose canvas or fine art paper for a sunset print?
Fine art paper holds a smooth colour gradient slightly better, which suits sunsets. Canvas arrives ready to hang with no glass and no reflections, which suits bright rooms. Both are available in every size.
What frame colour suits a sunset print?
Oak. The warm timber picks up the orange and pink in the image. Black gives a sharper, more contemporary result if the rest of the room is cooler.
Do you ship across Australia?
Yes, to all states and territories.