Capture the Magic: A Beginner’s Guide to Blue Hour Photography

Even if you’ve never taken photos during blue hour, it’s likely you’ve already experienced its beauty. Blue hour is the magical time of day right after sunset and right before sunrise that fills the sky with blue tones and soft, diffused light. 

By learning how to maximize this time of day, beginner photographers can capture stunning images of cityscapes and landscapes alike. Blue hour photography is also a skill you can add to your website to attract different clients, or a new medium that beginners can explore just for fun. 

Understanding Blue Hour

What is Blue Hour?

If you have experience with golden hour or sunset photography, you already have a headstart on mastering the power of blue hour, also known as magic hour. While golden hour happens the hour before sunset and the hour after sunrise, blue hour happens the hour after sunset and the hour before sunrise. Amateur and professional photographers like golden hour for its warm, even light and blue hour for its blue, cool and soft light. 

Blue hour lasts about an hour depending on the time of year, the air quality and location but it usually peaks about fifteen minutes after sunset and fifteen minutes before sunrise. Blue hour will also last longer in the summer and the winter but be shorter in the spring and fall. At higher latitudes, blue hour will peak for longer periods of time. 

Advantages of Shooting During Blue Hour

Photographers love blue hour for its diffused blue light. Without a singular bright light source, you won’t have to worry as much about photos being backlit or ending up with an overexposed image. During this time of day, all of the colors in your scene will have a blue tint, leading to a more monotonal look. 

If you’re looking to simplify a busy scene or infuse feelings of serenity, peace, sadness or seriousness into your photos, blue light can do just that. Because blue hour happens after the more popular golden hour and sunset, you can also find busy landscapes and cityscapes emptier than usual making it a great choice for landscape photography. 

Photographers often use blue hour to achieve deep blue skies, silhouettes and balanced exposures. Blue hour’s natural light also helps reduce high ISO noise in low-light conditions and provides a more even light that won’t lead to harsh shadows. These conditions make blue hour a good choice for amateur photographers.

You can explore the soft lighting, balanced natural light and consistent shooting conditions of blue hour by going out to capture a deep blue sky by the beach or a peaceful city street for some architectural photography. 

Techniques for Blue Hour Photography

Camera Settings for Blue Hour

The camera settings you choose will depend on the exact light conditions and the final render you’re after. If you want long exposure shots that create wispy-looking waves at the beach or long, airy clouds in the sky, you’ll need to increase your shutter speed. 

ISO controls the amount of light that gets let into your camera, so in really low-light conditions, you’ll need a slightly higher ISO. The higher your ISO, the grainier your final image will be, so try to start around 400 and then increase as needed. 

Using a larger aperture can also let more light in but the larger your aperture is, the more narrow your depth of field will be, which isn’t ideal for all subjects. During blue hour, you’ll likely need to adjust your shutter speed, ISO and aperture until you have the right camera settings for your scene. 

If you’re planning on shooting longer exposures, you’ll also want to bring a tripod and remote shutter release tool to prevent camera shake. 

Composing and Capturing the Scene

No matter what time of day you’re shooting, framing and composition are two important things to keep in mind while taking a picture. During blue hour, you’ll want to be aware of any external light sources. A bright street light can lead to uneven light or overexposed objects in your shot, but it can also be a nice juxtaposition against a blue-tinted cityscape.   

To add more interest to your scene, you might consider incorporating city lights or reflective surfaces like glass or water into your photos. Since blue hour only peaks for about fifteen minutes, it’s a good idea to plan your photo ideas ahead of time or even go back to the same spot a few nights in a row to have more time to experiment. If you’re planning to use long exposure times for your photos, plan for extra time to set up your tripod and frame your shot.  

Photographers covet blue hour photos for their dreamy and peaceful hues of blue so you might also use HDR techniques and white balance adjustments to ensure you capture the true colors of blue hour. The auto-white balance might neutralize the natural blue tones so try looking for settings like “daylight” or “tungsten.” 

Post-Processing Blue Hour Photos

For digital photographers or photographers who shoot their photos in RAW, post-processing is an essential step in the blue hour photography process. Many photographers use software like Lightroom or Photoshop to adjust the blue hues in their photos, as well as the exposure, contrast and saturation. 

Tools like histograms can also help adjust the darkness and brightness of certain parts of your photo. Blue hour images usually don’t need a ton of adjustment, especially if you’re shooting in JPEG. If you’re looking for more flexibility during post-processing, try shooting in RAW.  

Grow Your Photography Skills with Skillshare

The best way to become a master of blue hour is to get out and start experimenting. Knowing how to shoot blue hour photography can help you become a better photographer, improve skills like landscape photography and help you add a new technique to your website or resume. This week, try one blue hour shoot where you take photos using a lot of different settings while adding touches of your own unique style. 

For more guidance and photography tips, Skillshare is a resource where you can continue to develop your photography skills, watch more blue hour photography tutorials, join a photography community and connect with expert photographers. 

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Written By

Calli Zarpas

Producer & Writer by occupation. Ceramicist & Newsletter Editor by avocation.

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