In the world of photography, golden hour gets all the praise. Warm side light and colorful clouds at sunset may make for dramatic photos, but don’t put your camera away when the color fades. Often, the most interesting time of day can happen after the sun has set. This period of time is called twilight or blue hour.
What is Twilight?
Strictly speaking, twilight is the period between night and day when the sun illuminates our only atmosphere, not the landscape directly. Assuming there is no cloud interference, high-frequency blue wavelengths of light are broadly scattered, painting the landscape with a blueish hue, which is why this is sometimes referred to as blue hour. This effect is particularly pronounced in places with reflective terrain, such as the sandstone of the desert southwest or any area where there is fresh snow. For photography purposes, this is a magical time of day when the visible light is very soft and has an almost dream-like quality.
Twilight is broken up into 3 parts: Civil, Nautical and Astronomical.
Civil Twilight starts once the center of the sun is between zero and six degrees below the horizon. This is when that soft light starts filtering through and illuminating the landscape. This is also the time when the Belt of Venus comes into view. Now is the time to start shooting.
Nautical Twilight starts once the center of the sun is between six and twelve degrees below the horizon. At this point, the brightest stars and planets become visible to the naked eye. The end of nautical twilight marks the end of that beautiful soft light. At this point, only the horizon will be visible, and any features will be too dark to photograph.
Astronomical Twilight is the period when the sun is between twelve and eighteen degrees below the horizon. The sky is nearing complete darkness at this point, and any landscape photography comes to an end. This entire process happens in the opposite order during sunrise.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful parts of twilight is witnessing the The Belt of Venus. This is the pinkish glow that hovers above the horizon directly opposite from where the sun has set. This glow happens when sunlight is scattered among high-altitude particulates in our atmosphere. Even on cloudless mornings and evenings, the color gradation of the Belt of Venus ensures there is still something interesting in the sky. Sometimes, a landscape can be so complex that a cloudless sky with the Belt of Venus can help balance out the composition.
Tips for Shooting Twilight Landscapes:
1. Use a tripod. In order to photograph twilight, you’ll need a tripod. This is because exposure times need to be much longer to allow enough light into the camera. During the initial stages of twilight, shutter speeds might be around 1/10th of a second, and at the end of twilight they will be closer to 20 or 30 seconds. I always use a timer or remote shutter to ensure I’m not introducing any camera shake into the photo. Be careful not to include features that could move and cause blurring during these long exposures.
2. Shoot at an angle. When photographing twilight, it’s always best to be shooting at an angle to where the sun has set. This allows the soft light to provide definition to the landscape that is absent when shooting directly into or away from where the sun has already set. It is important to remember this when pre-visualizing blue hour shots.
3. Focus on the colors. Twilight often reveals colors and subtleties in the landscape that are obscured by the direct light of sun during broad daylight. This is a perfect time to zoom on on patterns, colors, and textures that might otherwise go unnoticed.
4. Wait for the right moment. The best light doesn’t start immediately after the sun has set. Depending on your geographic latitude, you’ll need to wait between ten and twenty minutes after sunset for the soft light to appear. This down time during the transition from golden hour to twilight is a good opportunity to refine your composition. The best shooting for twilight lasts around twenty minutes.
Conclusion:
In a world of warm tones and color palettes, the blue hour can provide a refreshing change of mood to your portfolio. The next time you’re out shooting, remember that sometimes the best light comes after the sun has gone down.
The transition between day and night is called “twilight”. Just before sunset it starts with the golden hour and moves from the blue hour towards the night. During sunrise, night turns to day in the phases astronomical twilight, nautical twilight, and finished by civil twilight. The sunset is during the civil twilight.
It's a great way to grab potential buyers' attention and make a property stand out! Twilight photos are usually taken during the “golden hour,” shortly after sunset or before sunrise.
This type of light makes for beautiful photographs because it enhances colors and adds dimension to landscapes. Golden hour occurs twice a day - once in the morning just after sunrise and again in the evening just before sunset.
During the golden hour, the sun is at a low angle in the sky, creating longer shadows and flattering lighting situations you can use for more creative effects. Rim lighting, backlighting, side lighting, silhouettes, sunbursts, and lens flares are all at your disposal during the golden hour.
The golden hour is known for producing beautiful natural light that is easy to work with. “It's hard to overexpose or underexpose parts of an image, like a subject's face, because the light is very even and has a beautiful golden hue,” says photographer Jenn Byrne.
Most of us think of twilight as a single period of transition from bright day to deep night, but there are actually three twilights: civil, nautical, and astronomical. Each is defined by how far below the horizon the sun is, and hint at our lives before artificial light and GPS.
Professional photographers swear by the perfect light of the "golden hour," which lasts for about an hour right after sunrise and an hour right before sunset when the sun is low in the sky and offers a soft, diffused light.
What camera settings work best at twilight? For the best possible image quality, set your aperture to f/8 and your sensitivity to ISO 100. You can then select a shutter speed to match the light you encounter. At twilight, this could be up to four seconds.
The worst light of the day is between the hours of 10am and 2pm when the light comes from overhead. This creates terrible and unflattering shadows where we don't wait to see them (under our eyes, under our noses to make them seem bigger … no one wants that).
That short period of time just after sunrise, or right before sunset, is known as the golden hour in photography. Also referred to as the magic hour, this period is defined by natural light which has a warm, reddish hue. Due to the sun's low angle, its rays filter through a greater distance.
Civil twilight is a good time to capture landscape photos with the moon and some of the brightest stars and planets. The moon will be visible throughout this time, while some of the stars and planets will be visible towards the end of civil twilight in the evening (or the beginning of it in the morning).
The golden hour time is considered to be the first hour after the sunrise and the last hour before the sunset. But you can slightly prolong the period and try golden hour photography a little bit before sunrise or after sunset. The colors will still be there.
From its beautiful warm hues to long shadows and diffused light — capturing the perfect golden hour shot requires some planning, but it's totally worth it for those stunning photos you'll get in return.
As for the ISO, try to set your camera between 100 and 800. It's ideal to start at 100 because it doesn't introduce too much image noise. As it gets darker, it may be necessary to choose a value higher than 100. Just try not to go beyond 800, so your pictures don't turn up too grainy and unusable.
In its most general sense, twilight is the period of time before sunrise and after sunset, in which the atmosphere is partially illuminated by the sun, being neither totally dark or completely lit. However there are three categories of twilight that are defined by how far the sun is below the horizon.
So what is the golden hour? Simply put, it's a short period of time just after sunrise or before sunset when the light casts a warm hue over landscapes and portraits alike. The exact span of time may vary from place to place but is generally considered to be the hour directly after dawn and before dusk.
Lawmakers have enshrined the concept of civil twilight. Such statutes typically use a fixed period after sunset or before sunrise (most commonly 20–30 minutes), rather than how many degrees the Sun is below the horizon.
the period of the day just before the sun sets or after it rises, when the light is redder and softer than usual so that photographs taken in it have a pleasing quality : The golden hour is when photographers often do their best work.
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