Blue hour photography
Posted on March 22, 2011
Filed Under Lexia Frank, Lighting, Photos | 3 Comments
I’m so tired of sunsets. In photography that is. In real life I’m totally that person who waits silently as the last little drip of orange light dips below the horizon and my eyes get all misty and I clap. I totally clap – have you ever been to a beach where at sunset everyone gives the sun a round of applause? Like “HELL YEAH SUN. Great work today. Thanks for warming everyone up. You go take a rest now.”
I’m totally one of those applause initiators.
But in photography I’d just rather be photographing the warm low light an hour before sunset, and the blue light afterwards. If you’ve never heard of the ‘blue hour’ before, this is going to be something you are not going to want to miss. Almost everyone pulls out their camera for the sunset picture, and then puts it away immediately afterwards.
They are missing the best possible light.
Here’s a picture I took just after sunset (about 20 minutes after) in Cabo San Lucas at a recent wedding I photographed. The crazy thing is…. It didn’t actually look like this in real life. You see, the camera sees things differently than the human eye does, and the sky just might like a drab dark (especially after a beautiful sunset), but your camera… well… the sunset was just a warm-up for the most brilliant colors yet.
Timing: The trick to getting these shots of deep blue skies during the ‘blue hour’ is timing. The name ‘blue hour’ is misleading… it really isn’t an hour at all. The window of time lasts about 20 minutes, and begins about 15 minutes after sunset, or 15 minutes before sunrise, if you’re one of those early morning types. The above shots were taken at five-minute intervals during the blue timeframe, and you can see how the color of the sky varies even within five minutes.
Settings: I suggest setting your aperture to the smallest setting (somewhere between f/16- f/22) so that any lights you have in the photograph will have the sharp sunburst effect (versus fuzzy blurry light). Since your aperture is closed down, you’ll need a very slow shutter speed, somewhere around a couple seconds or so. Because of the long shutter speed, you’ll most likely need a tripod. If you don’t have one, no worries! Just set the camera on a steady surface like a table or chair and you’ll be alright. Lastly, you’ll want to make sure your ISO is on the lowest setting (somewhere around 100) so that your image will come out with the finest grain possible.
So, everything I just said is all fine and dandy if you’re shooting a landscape or other stationary objects. But if you’re photographing people that you actually want in focus…. well… that’s a different ballgame. You wont be able to use a shutter speed that slow or they will be ridiculously blurry — unless that is your intention, which it could be since blurry people can create a sense of action and movement, but you will most likely need to have a faster shutter speed. Change your aperture and ISO settings accordingly. Set your Shutter speed around 1/60th of a second, keep bumping your aperture down and your ISO up until you get a proper light meter reading. Just remember, the more you bump your ISO up the grainier your image is going to be. You have to know how much you’re willing to give and take.
You may also try having the photo underexposed, meaning your light meter shouldn’t read at a perfect 0, but slightly under that (maybe -1 or -2). It is nighttime after all, and you want your photo to feel like you took it in lower light. Also, don’t forget to turn off your flash! You wont need it!
Finally, just check out the difference 15 minutes makes between these two photographs; the first taken immediately after sunset (before the blue hour) and the second at the height of the blue hour.
Right? Wow.
So next time you’re enjoying the sunset, don’t put your camera away right afterwards. Instead, maybe just enjoy the sunset in real life, and pull your camera out when everyone else has put theirs away for the night!
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3 Responses to “Blue hour photography”
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Did a long exposure abou the time after sunset and the color was very similar, to the blue sky, thought something was wrong with my camera as the visible color was no where close to that, was pretty much black, if I remember right, but the picture was very beautiful.
Think I may have to just keep doing things and understand them later.
Thanks for your write-up
Thanks so much for the article. I have been wanting to get more creative with blue hour shots, and I have a fantastic garden wedding coming up during this time frame. Do you have any advice for capturing portraits during the blue hour? Will the skies still look as spectacular with a wider aperture and faster shutter speed and a pop of flash for the subject?
Thanks a mill for this wonderful article! Just stumbled across it today. I am in Tanzania at the moment where the sunsets over the Indian Ocean are just spectacular. We are on the East coast but we’re on a peninsula facing west… but I have sooo many photos of it and tbh getting a bit bored of the photos (not the sunset itself) and can’t wait to try taking photos at the blue hour, which I had never heard of until now
cheers