Post sunset is one of my favorite times to take photographs; this applies to landscape as well as city skyline Photography. I regularly go out and capture the Boston City Skyline
at twilight on days that I am not occupied hunting for nature
photographs. The best time is 20 to 30 minutes after the sun has
set. The optimum light and magic of twilight does not last long.
Because twilight is hard to predict I set up my tripod and camera prior
to the actual sunset and then fire away once the sun sets and
disappears. This approach requires sufficient battery power and flash
card memory to keep shooting while closing in on the optimum light.
The Twilight Effect also works on cloudy days and really long exposure times are not unusual.
Besides Memorial Drive, one of the best locations is the parking garage of Boston Science museum. It
is one of my favorite locations and I love to see the sunlight fade and
the city lights come to life. This day I went straight to work and kept
on photographing the City Skyline of Boston
while the sun was setting and disappearing. I included in the
composition the skyline reflections and such Boston landmarks as the
Longfellow Bridge, Prudential Center, John Hancock building and placed
the Charlesgate Yacht Club as a foreground feature. The exposure of the
photograph was timed to to coincide with the Boston T subway crossing
over the Longfellow Bridge. At ISO 100, the aperture was set to f/4.5
resulting in a 10 second exposure time. In the post processing steps I
removed dust spots, minimally adjusted lighting and color saturation
before sharpening.
Want to learn more? I compiled 15 cityscape photography tips for capturing City Skyline Images.
I would love to spend a night sailing and admiring the overall beauty of Boston Skyline. The lights are just inspiring and, nothing to compare with but of course, to make sure that the boat or yacht is safe to ride on, I'll make sure to have an overall and rigging inspection on it, to not spoil the momentum.
ReplyDeleteBoston has plenty of sunset tours around the harbor and the Charles River. I find the skyline very appealing and I always discover something new when I head out to take those twilight and evening pictures while not being occupied with nature photography in New England!My best, Juergen Juergen
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