The Blue Hour is an terrific time for photography, but it is frequently less famous than its flashy, warm precursor, the Golden Hour. The Blue Hour is that magical time of night time when the sky turns a deep, darkish blue that is captured beautifully through camera sensors. It has amazing capability for growing stand-out photographs, particularly of subjects like lit towns, sparkling carnival lighting fixtures, and mild paintings. This put up will provide an explanation for the basics of the Blue Hour and the way nice to capture outstanding Blue Hour photographs.
Blue hour is also the weekly topic for theBoost Your Photography: 52 Weeks Challenge. Consider joining the BYP 52 Weeks Google+ Community to share your weekly photograph and see what others are capturing.
When Is the Blue Hour?
The Blue Hour is not always an hour, and it is not always blue. But, it is generally the time just following the sunset and Golden Hour or just before the sunrise and Golden Hour, and it most often lasts between an hour and only a half an hour. You can guesstimate the Blue Hour by adding about 15 minutes onto the sunset time (or subtracting 15 minutes from sunrise), or you can visit the Blue Hour Site, which has a handy Blue Hour calculator and will provide estimated starting and ending times for the Blue Hour. (There is also a link to a Flickr group with a lot of inspirational Blue Hour photographs.)Shooting During the Blue Hour
Many of the same tips for Better Sunrises and Sunsets are also applicable to shooting during the Blue Hour, especially knowing when and where to shoot, creating foreground interest, and nailing the exposure. Think about bringing and using a tripod when shooting during the Blue Hour, as the fading light will have you wanting longer shutter speeds (read more about How to Maximize Your Tripod or a review of the GorillaPod line of travel tripods).
If you shoot in JPEG, you may want to adjust your white stability to "tungsten" whilst shooting all through the Blue Hour, specifically if you are capturing a metropolis or different vibrant lighting fixtures at night time. Tungsten will deepen and intensify the blue elements, regularly making for a extra dramatic shot. If you shoot in RAW, you've got the capacity to pick Tungsten later in publish-processing.
Keep a watch for your LCD and histogram whilst shooting during the Blue Hour, as the mild may be changing swiftly. (See Demystifying the Histogram for extra info on the usage of your histogram.) One super method is to shoot bracketed pictures using exposure reimbursement, that's to be had on maximum DSLR cameras. This allows you to shoot a series of images at various publicity values, inclusive of -1, zero, and 1, which is a great c language to use.
Comparing the 3 pix above on the right, you may see how the underexposed shot (-1) brings out a deeper blue coloration inside the sky while compared to the typically exposed (0) and overexposed ( 1) pix. This series changed into taken very early on the begin of the Blue Hour, which is why the blue shade isn't always as said.
The left-hand collection of 3 exposures become taken 15 mins later, whilst the Blue Hour turned into in full swing. The deep blue skies are a good deal extra apparent across all three exposures. If you want the deeper, darker colour, you might still choose the underexposed version, however you might additionally discover your self interested in the cheerier lighter blues of the usually uncovered or overexposed variations too. This is the gain of capturing bracketed photographs: you can select your favorites after the event, and you may always exchange your mind. As the Blue Hour rolls to an cease and the sky becomes black, you might discover that simplest the overexposed version keeps any of the blue colour.
Ideas for Blue Hour Subjects
Cityscapes. Cities are an ideal subject for Blur Hour photography. The bright lights and moving traffic create a great contrast to the changing blues of the night or early morning sky. In the photograph above, the frozen ice and water on the lake echo the brilliant blues of the sky. (The purples towards the bottom are from the light reflecting off the ice.)
Lights and Light Painting. Playing with lights is a particularly fun way to use the Blue Hour. You can use a flashlight to "paint" color or brightness onto a subject, or you can write, paint, draw or swirl with lights to create intricate patterns and designs. All of them are complemented by the blue tones of the Blue Hour. Read Light Painting: How to Spin an Orb for more specifics.
Fairs, Festivals, and Carnivals. Anywhere with bright carnival rides is a great location for Blue Hour photography. After the sun sets and the blue hues come out, you can capture incredible long exposure shots using your camera, tripod, and remote shutter release. Vary your shutter speed, angle, and timing to create a wide variety of photographs. The photographs above show the difference between shooting during the Blue Hour and shooting after. The second shot was taken about a half-an-hour after the first. The blue color really adds to the brightness and drama compared to the black.
Sparklers, Fireworks, and Steel Wool. You can also create amazing Blue Hour photographs with sparklers, fireworks, or steel wool. Again, the bright lights look even more amazing against a blue backdrop. Sadly, not all communities schedule the timing of their fireworks displays around the precise Blue Hour (how thoughtless!), but you can choose the time if you are using sparklers or steel wool. Read more about Spinning Fire and Steel Wool Photography and/or Quick Tips for Better Fireworks Photographs for more details.
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