P#6 Q#5: What Are Some Suggestions for Making Twilight Pictures More Dramatic?

Combine a dark sky and a vibrant city skyline for great twilight photography

Jim Zuckerman: Sure. Make sure that you have enough going on in the city.

It's very easy if you live in a big city. Any of the big cities have high rises and freeways and all that kind of stuff. Yet if you live in a very small town, it's much more difficult to get drama but the more lights you have, the more buildings you have, the better.

Don't forget to wait until the sky is dark enough -- not black, but really close. You want a deep blue sky because here's the problem if you shoot too early. If the sky is too light: you're going to expose correctly for the sky, but the light from the buildings won't be as bright as it should be.

What makes the lights in the buildings really bright is the long exposure because light accumulates over a long exposure. So when the sky is dark enough, then you can use a longer exposure.

If the sky is too light and you shoot too early, the sky will be correctly exposed but you won't have enough brightness in the buildings.

I also want to mention that it does not matter if the sky is cloudy or not. This perhaps comes as a surprise. You would not think this is true. In fact, you would think that you'd get a deeper cobalt blue if there are no clouds.

But even if it's raining, you can get some fantastic twilight pictures and the sky will go cobalt blue even though you can't see the blue sky itself but you're just seeing the cloud.

Audri Lanford: That is so counterintuitive.

Jim Zuckerman: Yeah, it is very counterintuitive but it really helps because what this means is if you're traveling, let's say in Europe. Europe is illuminated at night really artfully. Every city, the way they do it there is magnificent. It makes great pictures.

But if it's cloudy or raining, it's so easy to say, "Oh, there's no chance I can get my cobalt blue sky at twilight so I'm going to forget it."

But I can tell you that one of my all-time favorite twilight pictures is of the Eiffel Tower that I did this last year, and it was lightly drizzling so the street was wet.

It was actually foggy. It was more than cloudy, it was foggy. But if you look at the picture, you have this outrageous deep blue sky, the lighting on the tower is just beautiful, and the glistening pavement just added to the effect.

If it's a downpour, that's a little hard because you'll get all wet but if it's a light drizzle, absolutely go out and shoot because it's just the best of the best.

Audri Lanford: You know, I mentioned to you when we were talking last week that we're headed out to San Francisco. I'm really looking forward to it -- we live in such a small town. You were talking about nothing going on, well, that's where we live.

Jim Zuckerman: Yes. I think San Francisco is our prettiest big city in the US. There's some wonderful classic views -- make sure that you shoot from Treasure Island looking back to the city; it's just a classic shot of the skyline.

To summarize

To photograph cities at twilight, wait until the sky is dark enough so your camera exposes properly with a long exposure. Don't be afraid to shoot when it's cloudy or rainy. Shooting in all sorts of weather creates beautiful effects.