Since today is the anniversary of the beginning of World War II, I thought I'd use a picture I took in Gdansk, Poland. This is the place where the war began with German planes bombing the harbor on September 1, 1939. The tranquil scene you see here shows no evidence of that horrible day. Twilight in cities hides a lot of things that should remain unseen in photographs. In fact, the most beautiful time to photograph a city, large or small, is just before dark when the city's lights are on and the sky is cobalt blue. I almost always use daylight white balance for this, and a tripod is a must because shutter speeds will be long and you don't want to raise the ISO unnecessarily high. The exposure can vary, depending on the time you shoot, but what you are looking for is cobalt blue in the sky, detail in the architecture, and a mixture of artificial and natural light. Study the LCD monitor on the back of the camera to determine if you like the exposure. If not, tweak it with the exposure compensation feature built into the camera. My settings for this shot were 1/4 second, f/4, ISO 200, and I used a 24-105mm lens. I put the moon in using Photoshop.
4 Comments
Sep 2, 2015, 7:27:04 PM
Stan greenberg - Jim:
Why did you choose f/4 aperture? Do you get enough depth of field?
Sep 2, 2015, 5:30:55 PM
Jim Zuckerman - Hi Stan, I chose f/4 because I was shooting with a wide angle lens and I had enough depth of field. Perhaps I should have closed down to f/8, which is the sharpest aperture, and at the same time insured sufficient DOF. That would have made the shutter one full second. The water would have been a bit blurred unless I raised the ISO, which at night I hate to do. So, to be honest, I could have gone either way. I'm very happy with how this came out, and I know had I used f/8 I would have been equally satisfied.
Sep 2, 2015, 10:25:26 AM
Jim Zuckerman - Hi Jan, Thanks for your comment. I'm glad I inspired you to try twilight photography. It is indeed a great time to shoot. I appreciate you following my blog.
Sep 2, 2015, 9:17:27 AM
Jan - This is beautiful, Jim! You inspired me to try twilight city shots a few years ago when you spoke at the Carolina Nature Photographers annual meeting. I've gotten some great results! Thanks for all of your helpful instructions. I enjoy your posts.