Taking Shots of Buildings at Night

Buildings seen at night can often be far more evocative of a cityscape than they appear to be in daylight hours. Some cities, such as New York, literally throb at night and are lit for the great part by garish neon light which looks strangely fitting.

The best time to take modern cityscape shots is about half an hour after sunset when the sky takes on a deep blue hue, which is far more attractive as a backdrop than a completely black sky. This quality of light lasts for a very short time, usually only 10-15 minutes. If you are prepared, such a length of time will be adequate; except of course that it will only provide perhaps one or two shots an evening. Because the light is low, exposures will be long and a tripod will be essential in most cases.

Making Use Of Additional Lights
If the composition of the building includes a street the head- and tail-lights of passing cars can be an added ingredient. By using a slow shutter speed the lights will appear as trails of light snaking through the man-made canyons of the city.

Be careful to avoid flare from external lighting such as street lamps. Sometimes a standard lens hood will be inadequate and a shield may need to be improvised from apiece of card, a book or a map, for instance; alternatively, shift position to stand between the camera and the light.

A shot at night of the Coliseum in Rome strikes a perfect balance between the illumination of the stone of the building and the colour of the twilight sky. The trails of the head and tail lights of the traffic help to fill the void created by the road. The other shot, INSET, taken from the same viewpoint, shows the effect of inadequate lens shading as the flare from a street light has flawed the picture.

A picture taken at night when the sky is quite dark as the building is well illuminated on the outside and fills most of the frame, the blackness of the sky forms a contrasting backdrop without being overpowering or dull.

Willis J. Watson is a freelance writer since 2006, living in United States and he writes about his great passion...digital photography for about 4 years. If you want to read more informations about Digital Sports Photography and also read more reviews about Youth Sports Photography, you can check out his websites.