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ead into the city just after sunset to capture colourful andmospheric shots of illuminated buildings and landmarks
Shoot a c tyscene at twilight
t you’ll needod • ND filter • Remotee • Photoshop Elements
long it’ll takeday
skills you’ll learnw to compose and focushot using Live Vieww to use a neutral density
er to capture long exposuresw to use Elements’ Gradientl to add colour to the sky
ecklist F or great cityscapes you can’t beat
shooting at twilight: after the sun
has set, but before the darkness
falls, there’s still enough natural light
to bring out detail, while the city lights
will be coming on to create extra colour
and interest. Twilight doesn’t last long
though, so you’ll need to be in position
and set up before the sun sets.
For our shoot we headed into the
heart of London to photograph St Paul’s
Cathedral and the Millennium Bridge
from the Thames Embankment; for a
successful twilight cityscape you need
to include iconic or interesting buildings
or bridges that are illuminated at night.
You’ll need a tripod, and optionally an
ND filter to stop down the light so you
can shoot long exposures. Aside from
enabling you to blur water and skies,
long exposures have another use: if
cars or people are passing through your
scene and the exposure is long enough,
they won’t appear in the image – you’ll
need a shutter speed of between 15 to
30 seconds to achieve this.
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Timing and locationTo make the most of the twilight period you need
to be set up ready to shoot in good time, so check
the sunset time – twilight begins after the sun sets, and
before the darkness sets in. Choose a location with
buildings that have plenty of lights and illuminated
windows, and other interesting features.
Use a tripodSet your camera up on a tripod so that you can
capture long exposures. Make sure you place it
out of the way of people passing by, as you don’t want
it to get knocked during an exposure. If it’s windy you’ll
need to shelter it – you can do this with your body, or
weigh down the centre column with your camera bag
if it has a hook for this purpose.
Camera settingsSet your camera to Av mode and set the aperture
to f/16 – combined with the long exposure thiswill produce a ‘starburst’ effect from the lights in the
scene. Noise can be a problem with long exposures in
low light, so keep the ISO to 100 to counter this, and
shoot Raw files for maximum quality.
ND filterTo obtain a slow enough shutter speed to blur
water and clouds you’ll need a neutral density
(ND) filter. We used a variable ND, which enabled us
to control the strength of the effect by rotating the
outermost filter. Half-press the shutter button to take
a shutter speed reading – around 30 secs is ideal.
Composition and focusSwitch to Live View mode to compose and focus
the shot (this also means the mirror will be locke
up to minimise camera vibrations). Compose the shot
using leading lines such as a bridge or river to draw the
eye into the scene. To focus, switch your lens to
manual, then zoom in on a key feature (St Paul’s in our
case) and adjust the focus to get it perfectly sharp.
Remote releaseUse a remote release to fire the shutter so that
you don’t jog the camera at the start of theexposure (if you don’t have one, you can use the 2-sec
Self-timer option in the AF/Drive settings). Make sure
you don’t touch the camera during the exposure, and
check your image is sharp when you’ve taken it.
fractionraction is a
enomenon where
t ‘bends’ around
all obstacles, such
he aperture blades
lens – the narrower
aperture, the more
nounced the effect.usually regarded as
roblem, as it leads
a loss of overall
arpness in an image.
wever, it can be
ed creatively to your
vantage, with light
urces taking on an
ractive ‘starburst’
ect; small street
ts in a scene are
ticularly prone to
effect. You’ll need
hoot at a narrow
erture, such as f/16;
ou shoot at wide
ertures of around
6 you won’t be able
capture the effect.
hrase Book
The rule of
thirds is just as
portant when you’re
mposing cityscapes
or landscapes: for
shot we filled the
and bottom thirds
he frame with the
and water, and
ced the dome of St
ul’s on the left-hand
tical third line; we
o used the diagonals of the bridge
ead the eye
o the scene.
uper Tip!
man
case
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R editsOpen cityscape_start.dng. Set the Temperature
slider to 7650 to warm the image up, then set
osure to +0.95 to brighten the shot. Set Highlights
0 to pull back some of the overexposed highlights,
set Shadows to +60 to add some ‘fill light’ to the
er areas. Set Contrast to +30, Clarity to +35 and
ration to +10.
op and straightenClick and hold on the Crop tool icon in the toolbar
and choose the 2 to 3 ratio, then crop the image
se the fence at the bottom and tidy up the edges.
select the Straighten tool and draw a line along
op of the river wall, then click Enter to crop and
ghten the image. Click Open Image to open the
ge in Elements’ Expert/Full Edit workspace.
Draw a gradientSelect the Gradient tool. In the Options panel
click the Edit button and choose the Foreground
to Transparent option, then click the Linear Gradient
button and check Transparency. Draw a short gradient
from the top of the dome of St Paul’s to the tops of the
buildings below, then change the layer’s blending mode
to Overlay to blend the gradient in. To fine-tune the
contrast add a Levels adjustment layer, and set the
Shadows slider to 8 and Midtones to 1.05.
mple a sky colourWe’ll use a gradient to enhance the top part of the
sky. Add a new layer, then click the foregroundur swatch in the Tools panel to open the Color
er. Move your cursor over the sky – it’ll change to
yedropper – and click to sample a dark blue tone,
click the circle in the colour field and drag it right
down to select a darker and more saturated blue.
Other examples...Cities at twilight present you with lots of creativeoptions – here are two more effects to try out
Sweeping city skylines are prime candidates for panoramic images, and we
cropped this image to the 16:9 ratio to create a panoramic composition. You can
create wider panoramas by shooting several images and merging them using
Elements’ Photomerge Panorama command – for the best results shoot in
portrait orientation, leaving plenty of overlap between shots.
You can bring your
city scenes to life by
using a slow shutter
speed to create the
impression of bustling
movement. For the
best results you’ll
need an exposureof between 1 and 5
seconds – for this
shot we chose 2.5
secs at f/10.
Overlay modeOverlay blending mode
is a combination of
Multiply mode, which
darkens pixels, and
Screen mode, which
lightens pixels. Overlay
applies a Multiplyeffect if pixels on the
lower layer are darker
than 50% grey, and a
Screen effect if pixels
are lighter than 50%
grey; in this case it
darkens the dark tones
in the sky but lightens
the lighter colours of
the sky and dome,
boosting the contrast.
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