City nights

Learning goal

When photographing a city at night, you will be able to find the short time when the sky and the artificial lights stand in balance in the same frame and prepare for it. You will follow how fast the sky darkens after sunset, shoot in the minutes when the brightness of the city's lights and that of the sky come close to each other, and know how the frame changes once this moment has passed. Seeing that street lamps, shop windows and buildings give light in different colors, you will choose the white balance consciously: leave the lights warm, or keep the sky blue? You will bring into the frame the light trails of passing cars and the reflections of wet pavements in a long exposure. You will photograph a person passing or waiting in front of a shop window at night with the window's broad light, their skin in its real tone and without getting lost among the mixed colors.

The question

The only flaw of the hill frame was the village side: the lights of the houses had turned into shapeless orange specks. The next evening your friend is in the city, standing on a quay facing the bridge over the river. The sun has set, the sky a deep blue; the bridge's lights have just come on. They shoot a frame: the sky blue, the lights bright but detailed, the bridge's steel cables readable. When they shoot the same frame half an hour later, the sky is jet black, the lights once again smudges. Why does the city look so different at blue hour?

Context

In the golden hour lesson you met blue hour, when the sun is below the horizon and the scene is lit by the sky's blue, scattered light (Lesson 5.4). In the night lesson you saw the brightness of the sky and the brightness of city lights being close enough to be carried in the same frame, and lights of different colors existing side by side (Lesson 16.6). In this track's first lesson you also set up working in the dark with a tripod, focusing by hand and a test shot (Lesson G.1).

City nights are the most accessible place for night photography: bridges, squares, shop windows, traffic within a few minutes' walk with a tripod. But in the same frame the city's lights and the sky are often of very different brightness: either the sky comes out right and the lights burn out, or the lights come out right and the sky is lost. This lesson takes up the short time when the two meet, the colors of the lights and the person in the city's night.

Simple explanation

When do the light and the sky meet?

The balance moment is the short time after sunset when the brightness of the darkening sky and the brightness of the city lights coming on are closest to each other. Right after the sun has set the sky is still very bright and the lights stay dim; a few minutes later the sky darkens, the lights come forward, and at some point the two come close enough to keep their detail in the same frame. This moment is a time of a few to fifteen minutes, changing with place and season, that often falls within the half hour after sunset.

To catch this moment, it helps to go to the place early, set up the tripod and prepare the framing before sunset, and shoot a frame every few minutes as the sky darkens. When you compare the frames side by side on the screen, you see the frame where the sky is still blue but the lights stand bright and detailed. Once the balance moment has passed the sky darkens and the lights turn back into bright smudges; this is sometimes a wanted night feeling, but the color of the sky is lost.

What color are the lights?

Lamp color is the color of the light given by a city's street lamps, shop windows, buildings and car headlights. Old street lamps are often orange, while new lights can be whiter or bluish; shop windows, billboards and the insides of buildings are full of greenish, yellow or white lights. A single white balance can't show them all right at the same time; you need to choose which light will look right and which will stay warm or cool.

At blue hour, setting the white balance a little toward the warm lights pulls the sky to a deeper blue and neutralizes the orange lamps; leaving it at daylight keeps the lamps warm and the sky a paler blue. This isn't a question of right and wrong but a choice about what the frame will tell. In a long exposure, the headlights of passing cars turn into white lines and their brake lights into red ones; after rain, wet pavements and the surface of a river multiply the lights and light the lower half of the frame too.

How is a person photographed in the city at night?

Shop window light is the broad, soft light that spills out onto the street at night from a shop's large window. The face of a person standing or passing in front of a shop window is lit by this light from the side, much like window light. This light is a ready and generous source for a portrait in the city at night; but the color of the light inside the window carries over to the face: a white window shows skin naturally, while a greenish light can make skin pale and a warm light can pull it toward orange.

To keep the face from getting lost among mixed colors, you need to set the white balance for the light falling on the face and take the exposure from the face; the city lights behind can stay a little warm or cool with this setting. Light skin can easily blow out in the brightness of the window; dark skin, on the other hand, can blend into the background of the dark street and lose its detail. Bringing the person a little closer to the window or turning their face to the light, together with taking the metering from the face, keeps them in their own color in the middle of the night. If you are photographing someone in a recognizable way, you need to ask permission, even at night.

Visual evidence

The next evening your friend reaches the quay half an hour before sunset, sets up the tripod and frames the bridge. After the sun sets they shoot a frame every three minutes. At the eighteenth minute the sky is deep blue, the bridge's lights bright but detailed; the cables read. At the thirtieth minute the sky is jet black.

When they set the white balance for the warm lamps, the sky turns a deep blue and the orange lamps go white; when they leave it at daylight, the lamps are orange and the sky lighter. In an eight-second exposure, the cars crossing the bridge leave red and white lines; the wet quay multiplies the lights.

On the way back they photograph Selin from the club, waiting in front of a florist's window. The window's white light falls on her face from the side; they set the white balance for her face and take the metering from her face. Her dark brown skin is warm and detailed, the street lamps behind her staying a little orange.

Common mistakes

Summary

The city looks different at blue hour because, in a short balance moment after sunset, the darkening sky and the lights coming on are close enough in brightness to keep their detail in the same frame; this moment is caught by going early and shooting every few minutes. The city's lamps give light in different colors and the white balance is decided by a choice; the light trails of cars and wet surfaces enrich the frame, and a person in the broad light of a shop window is photographed in their real tone, with metering and white balance made for their face.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will find the balance moment of a city view.

1. Go to a place facing a bridge, a square or a city skyline half an hour before sunset, set up the tripod and prepare the framing.
2. After sunset shoot a frame every three minutes; put the frames side by side to find the moment when the sky and the lights are most balanced, and compare by trying the white balance for two different lights.
3. On the way back, photograph someone in the light of a shop window, with their permission; make the metering and white balance for their face.

Check yourself

• How many minutes after sunset did the balance moment come?
• Does the white balance you chose suit what the frame wants to tell?
• Is the face in the shop window light in its real tone?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is the balance moment?

• A) Midnight
• B) The short time after sunset when the brightness of the sky and the city lights are closest
• C) The moment the sun is right overhead
• D) The moment the lights go out

2. How does the frame change once the balance moment has passed?

• A) The sky darkens and the lights turn into bright smudges
• B) The sky brightens
• C) The lights go out
• D) Nothing changes

3. How is the white balance decided among mixed-colored city lights?

• A) It is left on auto for each frame
• B) It is always fixed at daylight
• C) Which light will look right is chosen consciously and kept fixed
• D) It is chosen at random

4. How is a face in front of a shop window exposed?

• A) For the city lights behind
• B) For the sky
• C) For the brightest spot on the screen
• D) By taking the metering from the face and setting the white balance for the light falling on the face

Answers

1. B — The darkening sky and the lights coming on reach, for a few minutes, a brightness that can be carried in the same frame.
2. A — As the sky deepens the difference from the lights grows and the lights look burnt out again.
3. C — A single setting can't show every color right; the choice is made according to what the frame tells.
4. D — A setting made for the light falling on the face keeps the skin independent of the mixed colors behind.

Summary card

• Go early, set up the tripod, shoot every few minutes after sunset.
• The balance moment is short: blue sky, detailed lights.
• Lamp colors differ; choose the white balance knowingly and keep it.
• Car trails in a long exposure, reflections on wet surfaces.
• In shop window light, meter the face from the face, set the white balance for the face.

Bridge to the next lesson

After the bridge frame your friend looks at the city sky: even at midnight the sky is full of an orange glow, only a few bright stars can be picked out. Yet in the frame from the hill a faint band of light cut across the sky from end to end. Why can't you see the Milky Way from the city? The next lesson takes up how city lights brighten the sky, how to find a dark sky from maps, and a scale that measures the darkness of the sky.