Night and Low Light Photography: When Daylight Slumbers

Nothing in photography evokes passion and intrigue like images captured in low light.  Mood is the universal theme when immersed in gazing at an image taken in the pre-dawn hours or in the mystical blue hour of an evening.  As light from the sky disappears, the scene becomes lit with energy from within, creating a much different emotion than when seen in daylight.  Suddenly appear reflections, enchanting colors from the sky, and solitude.

Golden hour is those times of day just before sunset and just after sunrise when the sun appears just above the horizon Night and Low Light Photography.  Blue hour appears when the sun hides beneath the horizon in the early morning and at dusk.  These are favorite times for photographers to capture low light images.  The sun is still a light source, but much muted from other daylight hours.  Heavy cloud cover, but short of overcast, provides the perfect canvas for bringing amazing colors to the skies.

Sunrise and sunset photos are images like no other.  They often bathe the foreground with deep, warm colors of pinks, oranges, yellows and reds.  Done well, a photographer will capture those brief moments of cascading colors that turn a normal, everyday happening into a brilliant display of intense chroma for our eyes to behold.  The quest to find and photograph these fine moments is the impetus that forces the photog to arrive on location hours before the event occurs, if it occurs at all.  Oftentimes it does not, urging the artist to return another day.

Night and Low Light Photography skies can also provide opportunities to get amazing photos.  A moonlit sky, whether with a full moon or just a sliver in waning phase, can bring about a magical, haunting feeling of mystery and moody blues.  City skylines at night are also enchanting, especially if they are undergirded by water.  Lit by the myriad windows and street lights and perhaps passing boats, the scene simply sparkles.