Twilight - Lake Toxaway Residence
Although a favorite early 60′s TV series of mine by Rod Serling is but instead about photographing Architecture at night specifically at twilight. What is Twilight? Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise, and between sunset and dusk. Sunlight scattered in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the earth is neither completly lit nor completely dark. Twilight has long been popular with photographers and painters, who refer to it as the “blue hours”, after the french expression l’heure bleue.
Actually “Twilight” can be broken down to three divisions – civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight. The brightest of these is civil twilight and occurs when the sun is closest to the horizon, with astronomical twilight being the darkest when the sun is farthest from the horizon. Nautical twilight occurs in the middle. The length of these twilight times varies slightly depending on the distance from the equator and the time of year.
The Definition of Civil Twilight Civil - twilight occurs when the center of the sun is between 6 degrees below the horizon to just at the edge of the horizon. For example, at sunset civil twilight begins as the sun disappears and lasts until the sun’s center is 6 degrees below the horizon. For midlatitudes, civil twilight lasts a bit longer in summer and winter and is a bit shorter in spring and fall. In spring and fall, the sun rises and sets more directly in the east and west and therefore makes a straighter path downward (or upward), reaching the 6 degree mark in a shorter period of time. In summer and winter, the sun arcs across the sky, cutting across the horizon at an angle. This angle is more pronounced in summer, which is why civil twilight lasts the longest in summer. Civil twilight in midlatitudes can last, on average, a half an hour.
The Definition of Nautical Twilight – Nautical twilight picks up where civil twilight left off, when the center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon to 12 degrees below the horizon. The horizon appears indistinct and terrestrial objects can be made out but artificial light is required to carry on activities. More bright stars appear during this time, which was important in the early days of navigation as directional cues. For polar regions, the summer sun does not set below 12 degrees below the horizon, therefore these regions have no astronomical twilight for a portion of the year. For midlatitudes, nautical twilight can last from about a half hour in spring, winter, and fall to about 45 minutes in summer.
The Definition of Astronomical Twilight – Astronomical twilight is the darkest form of twilight. It occurs when the center of the sun reaches 12 degrees below the horizon to 18 degrees below the horizon. In midlatitudes, astronomical twilight can last about a half hour from fall through spring but up to an hour in summer. Any sky illumination might not even be noticeable during astronomical twilight. Astronomical twilight begins about an hour to an hour and a half after sunset for midlatitudes. For stargazers, this is the time when fainter stars, clusters, and other sky objects appear and become good observing targets.
In my opinion Twilight is probably the most beautiful time of day to photograph architecture. The night sky is characterized by a black sky while twilight is a beautiful deep cobalt which makes for a great, nature made, back drop. Since we are dealing with a very low light level today’s digital camera’s can be hand held with a high ISO setting however the best approach is to bring a good tripod with. High ISO’s tend to bring unwanted “noise” into the image and also another negative is the color and contrast suffer.
I receive several questions on how do I get the right exposures in my twilight images so here is the secret.
It’s really very simple just shoot in the 30 minute window following sunset or before sunrise. This is not to be confused with the “Golden Hour” which is 30 minutes before sunset or after sunrise.
Exposure is simple especially with today’s digital cameras where you can just click off multiple “test” shots. Just meter off the sky or use your camera’s matrix metering.
The twilight image below was taken with a Canon 5D MKII at ISO 100, aperature f16 and a 35 second exposure time. I fired off about 10 shots and picked the best of them.
Ok that’s the simple explanation but it can become more complex if you want it to. If the building facade you wish to shoot is facing East then this means you will have to set your alarm clock and get out of bed early to get to your location and shoot 30 minutes before sunrise. Shooting with the sun facing the building will splash more light on the structure bringing out more of it’s color and detail than shooting on the “dark” side.
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Good luck and welcome to the Twilight Zone
