What factors come into play for a beautiful sunrise/sunset?

[yves d]

I would like to shoot a scene where the sky looks like this http://imgur.com/a/MqAqs

Is there a way to predict whether or not the sky will set or rise like that? Or is it based all on luck?

 

[AndreeMarkefors]

How the sky looks will depend on many factors.

• Geographical location
• Time of year
• Time of day
• environmental things like smog (which might change on a daily basis)
• Temperature and few point (fog and so on)
• cloud layers

Obviously, some of these things you can control and some you can't.

Start by getting familiar with an app like Sunseeker. That will at least show you the sun's position and angle - both of which are contributing factors.