Twilight Lighting

Balancing the lights on a building with the light of the sky can lead to many interesting photographs. To do this, you want to start photographing just after sunset. Start out with an exposure that correctly exposes the building lights. At first, right after sunset, the sky will be much too bright. As the minutes pass by, the light intensity of the sky will be falling. Somewhere between 10 and 25 minutes after sunset, you will find that the light intensity of the sky pretty much matches the light intensity of the building lights. This is the magic moment you want to take your picture.

This photo of a popular local ice cream shop was taken about 20 minutes after sunset, just when the intensity of the sky matched the light intensity of the sign on the building. A tungsten light balance was set so the sky would show up as a fairly deep blue. This is a technique I learned from David Hobby's Strobist website.

This photo was taken on a Canon 50D with a Canon EF-S 15-85mm lens. The lens was set to 19mm and the exposure was at f/5.6 for 1/30 sec. (ISO 400).

Learning to balance light in a wide variety of situations is an important element in good photography. These exercises are helping me to become a better photographer.