camera button friday: blue hour

'When' you take a photo is just as important as 'How'. 

Lighting is one of the most important elements in photography (ummm, you are taking a photo of light remember) so choosing the right light is key.  And yes, I used the word Choosing because you do have a choice, choosing not to take a photo is just as important as choosing to take a photo...but that is another post, we were talking about light.  There are many great times durring the day to take photos in great light; this one is called Blue Hour.  Why they call it an hour is a little silly because if feels like only a couple minutes, but it is a couple minutes durring the 'hour' after sunset where they sky turns blue.  This is really cool when you want to mix artificail light with the fading night sky...but you have to wait for the levels to be the same.

before sunset....

after sunset durring 'blue hour' but to soon.....

just about right......

This is great when you want to show the photo was taken at night, but when you don't wnat the sky to be black.  I just think it creates a fun mood, especialy for those fun summer nights.

Depending on the amount of artificial light (a single street light produces a lot less light than a stadium full) you need to wait until the light levels in the sky (lets call that ambient) drop to the light levels that are created by man.  The hard part is that this will only last for a couple moments.  Then it is gone.

I guess it is called the Blue Hour because there is about an hour where the sky is still blue...but depending on how much artificial light you have to match it to, you will only have a couple minutes when those light levels cross in intensity.