What is blue time photography?

Dusk, blue time. No matter what you call it, it's a good time for photographers to take some unique and mysterious images in one day. In the beautiful and smooth sky, the residual light emits a faint blue shadow, and people often miss the blue moment unconsciously, but at the same time, a wonderful and mysterious moment of the day happens shortly before sunrise and after sunset. It usually lasts 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the weather and latitude.

If you want to join photographers who try to take pictures at this time of day and successfully capture the beautiful scenery, our guide is especially suitable for you. You will see what you can do to create incredible incredible images in blue hours!

First, plan before shooting. The first step in this process will be to determine the shooting time. Because the time frame in this case is relatively short, you need to plan everything in advance and get it in place before the right time starts. Consider using a special application (for example, prime time) to find out exactly the blue time in your area. In addition, please remember that the lens sky will turn blue before your eyes turn blue! Do some tests after sunset to check the hue.

Second, carry a tripod with you and use a low-speed shutter. A tripod can help you create clearer images without the risk of camera shake. Don't forget to bring a tripod and a camera timer, otherwise you need to find some stable surfaces to put the camera on during shooting.

Thirdly, when considering using shutter priority mode to shoot in blue time, fully mastering camera settings is a key factor for success. In most cases, switching the camera to shutter priority mode is an ideal choice. This mode allows you to set a slower shutter speed, so that you can create a beautiful long exposure, which will make the sky soft and velvet, and create a light trace of a moving light source.

4. Original shooting. Shooting in RAW format will provide you with the highest quality image when the blue color is small, and provide you with many choices when editing. For example, if the captured image is too bright, and vice versa, you can easily adjust the exposure compensation during post-processing without degrading the image quality.

5. Consider using manual focusing. Although autofocus works well in full light, it may be difficult for your camera to focus as needed after sunset. Consider switching to manual focus to better control the focus.

6. When trying to shoot in blue hours with automatic bracketing exposure (AEB), please try to use automatic bracketing exposure (AEB). With this option, your camera will take three or more photos with slightly different exposures. This will help to "save photos" in the future, that is, create composite images from photos.

Looking for a light source At this time of day, photography almost always needs a light source. Whether it's the bright full moon, the distant city skyline, the light reflected in the water, the lights on the bridge, the continuous traffic lights, even the bonfire, or the light illuminated by the flashlight!

Of course, if you shoot the horizon yourself, the sunset may give off enough light, so you don't need any other light source.

Eight, shoot the starlight flare with a narrow aperture If you want to shoot the stars in the picture within a blue hour, you need to use a narrow aperture (such as f/ 16). Street lamps are the simplest and most common visual objects in the form of starlight flashing, but the lights or headlights on the bridge can't be worse. When ISO is dimmed, it may be necessary to increase ISO slightly to compensate for lighting conditions.

Nine, the feeling of warmth Blue hours are the ideal time to create photos in a day, which convey the beauty of tranquility in nature. When the sun sets on the horizon, the cream sky creates a perfect and warm background. If you gently light a pond, river or ocean at the same time, the effect will be particularly good.

On the other hand, you can take this photo of Chengdu to show the scenery of a dormant city. "Blue Time" is an excellent opportunity to photograph the city skyline, bridges and luminous roads from the automobile movement and convey the sense of movement!

1 1. Post-processing should be creative. When shooting in blue hours, consider using dark colors or adding warm colors. You can even adjust the white balance by adding gold to the image. Your choices are endless!

All the tips should inspire and help you to take pictures at magical moments (such as blue time). Don't forget to plan the process in advance, find a good place, and don't forget to force the light source. Then pick up the camera and tripod, and try to shoot wonderful images and have fun in this exciting but short day.