The Blue Hour

 

This image is from St. Anne's in Houston, TX - It's where my mother went to school! The blue in the sky is her favorite color so I drove down to this church one night and took a picture, printed it, framed and matted it and then gave it to her for Christmas. She was over-joyed!

Right after the sun sets and before it gets dark, the sky takes on the most loveliest shade of blue. This is affectionately called "The Blue Hour" by artists. It's the second most popular kind of lighting to photographers because they can use that lovely shade of deep, rich blue to accent any artificial lighting around them. Using twilight for high contrast photos is another great technique that pre-dates the invention of photography.

Even Leonardo da Vinci found this time of evening to have a flattering affect on his subjects. He encouraged his students to cover their patios with a tarp so they could have this lighting affect in the daytime as well. Shadows on figures are more pronounced but still soft and flattering. Even buildings look prettier in this type of lighting because the corners and angles are accented with a high contrast. It can be quite a challenge to make artificial lighting look pretty especially at night. The tripod is necessary for sharp shooting and your camera needs to be set manually. Any auto focus - auto lighting images will look fake and over-lit.

Twilight is another story. The light is still bright enough for rich, natural colors and any artificial light will not dominate the scene.

So if your heading out to take some sunset photos, stay out a little longer and you'll catch the blue hour!