Pixiq

One of the ways you can add drama to your pictures of cityscapes, architecture, amusement parks, bridges, monuments, and other man-made structures is to shoot them at twilight. The mixture of the cobalt blue sky with the artificial illumination is stunning, and you will be amazed at the outstanding pictures you will get at this time of evening.

Before I go on, it’s important that I distinguish between twilight and dusk. Dusk is the time after sunset and before twilight. The sky still has some light in it, and if you are shooting the skyline of a large city, you’ll see a few lights in the tall buildings. Twilight begins when you can see all the lights in the buildings clearly and the sky has become a deep cobalt blue. If you shoot too early, you won’t get the saturated colors that make the picture so compelling. In addition, the sky will most likely be overexposed when you expose for the architecture. At the very least, it won’t have the kind of saturation that I feel makes the strongest image. 

You can see this difference in photos A and B, taken on the Cinque Terra coast of Italy. Photo A was taken about 20 minutes too early. It is not a bad picture at all—in fact, I like it—but maximum drama with respect to color contrast was achieved when the sky became that deep cobalt blue. Photo B is much more dramatic.

A

B

Twilight is darker than dusk, and that forces you to use a longer exposure. The advantage in doing that, however, is that the lights in the buildings, which don’t seem that bright when you look at them, will turn out brilliant in the photograph. The longer exposure time accumulates light to make the illuminated windows appear much brighter than they really are, and this can only happen when it’s dark enough so the longer shutter speed won’t cause overexposure in the rest of the frame.

I took photo C in Philadelphia about 10 minutes too early for maximum impact. Again, I like the image, but it doesn’t have the rich color tones and the powerful contrast that photo D does. What is also interesting to note is that it doesn’t matter if the sky is clear or if it has a thick cloud cover. You will still get the cobalt color that characterizes twilight photography.

C

D