Keep calm and feel the blue hour

With winter just around the corner, we lose a bit of daylight time each day. In true Cruijffiaans: every disadvantage has advantages too. This change in daylight hours makes it easier to go out and shoot in the blue hour. 

The blue hour is the period just before sunrise and just after sunset. It's that time when the sky moves from dark to blue in the morning and from blue to dark in the evening.

• Nighttime (below -18°)
• Morning twilights (from -18° to 0°)
  • Astronomical Twilight (from -18° to -12°)
  • Nautical Twilight (from -12° to -6°)
  • Civil twilight (from -6° to 0°)
• Morning magic hours
  • Blue hour (from -6° to -4°)
  • Golden hour (from -4° to 6°)
• Daytime (above 6°)
• Evening magic hours
  • Golden hour (from 6° to -4°)
  • Blue hour (from -4° to -6°)
• Evening twilights (from 0° to -18°)
  • Civil twilight (from 0° to -6°)
  • Nautical Twilight  (from -6° to -12°)
  • Astronomical Twilight  (from -12° to -18°)
• Nighttime (below -18°)

Sunrise:
If you want to shoot the blue hour in the morning you gotta be on your desired location 45 minutes before sunrise. That'll leave you with sufficient time to set up your gear, because the blue hour starts approximately 30 minutes before sunset.

Sunset:
Stay put, even when the sun has just disappeared under the horizon. Blue hour during the sunset starts roughly 10 - 15 minutes after sunset.

This is an app I frequently use for checking the blue hour on my location. 

The blue hour is actually not really an hour. It's the period of approximately 30 - 40 minutes before sunrise and after sunset, depending on your geographical location and the season.

Here's some tips for shooting in the blue hour. Cityscapes, landscapes and beaches are great to shoot during the blue hour. Because these look really awesome if you use long exposure and you're not too close to a light source. Granted, that's just my 2 cents, but give it a go and see how you like it. 

To shoot the blue light, it's imperative you have a sturdy tripod preferably in combination with a remote control. Alternatively you can set your camera on the 2 seconds timer to avoid camera shake. Bear in mind that it'll probably be a bit dark when setting up your gear and setting your settings. I always make sure to bring a torch or a headlight, just for setting up. 

Here's some starting points for your settings: 

1. ISO: 100 - 200
2. Aperture: f8 - f22. Shooting with a small aperture (f16)  gives the starburst effects on the street lights
3. The exposure depends on the available light on your location
4. Last but certainly not least: shoot RAW. It gives you so much more control over the end result.

Here's a picture from the Hurtigbåtterminal in Trondheim. Just 10 minutes after the sunset.

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Basics: it's all about good preparation

Last week we wrote about Focus. I guess you can sort of see this is a logical part two. 

Before you even start shooting you should think about what you want to shoot, what you'd like to achieve with your image. 

Summer days are really long here in Sweden, so it's kinda out of office hours you have the best light for shooting both a sunrise and a sunset. As we are slowly easing into autumn, the times are getting better for getting that magical morning (and evening) light. 

So last night I set my mind to shooting a sunrise. Preparation started with: 
- checking the weather. I don't want too much clouds in my images (nor too little for that matter). 
- checking the times for the sunrise and where does the sun actually rise? Yeah, I know, in the east. But where exactly will be the best spot in my immediate surrounding to see that sunrise? Hurrah for Google, we found this great site to answer just these questions. 

With both the weather and the sunrise details checked, we planned the location: a jetty close to Tibrandshögen here on Rödön. It's alway nice to shoot close to the water to get beautiful reflections. Composition wise it's best to have a decent foreground when shooting your sunset. Use for example the stones in the water, a jetty or a human being.

And then ofcourse, I needed all my equipment (plus some more): 

1. Camera (batteries fully charged ofcourse) 
2. Filters (ND/ polarized)
3. Tripod
4. Remote control (or use the timer of your camera) to avoid camera shake
5. Food/drinks
6. Warm clothes
7. Phone (to check the time)

Luckily, the weather prediction was spot on this morning at 5! 

I made sure to be at the location an hour before the actual sunrise. This way I caught the beautiful soft light of the blue hour. This blue hour is between an hour before sunrise and the actual sunrise

Blue hour is the period of twilight each morning and evening when the sun is a significant distance below the horizon and the residual, indirect sunlight takes on a predominantly blue hue. This effect is caused by the relative diffusibility of short blue wavelengths of light versus the longer red wavelengths. During the blue "hour" (typically the period is about 40 minutes in length), red light passes straight into space while blue light is scattered in the atmosphere and therefore reaches the earth's surface. 

When the sun is above the horizon it's called the Golden hour.

In photography, the golden hour (sometimes known as magic hour, especially in cinematography) is a period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer compared to when the Sun is higher in the sky.

With this picture you can easily understand the blue and golden hour:

And as you can probably imagine by now: it's the opposite way during the sunset.

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