Articles

Short, practical notes from shooting blue hour and night photographs — how to be there on time, how to expose, and how to finish the file.

• How to develop blue hour photos Calibrate the screen, then fix brightness and white balance before you touch anything clever.
• How to plan a blue hour shoot Pick the date for the light you want, then work backwards from the calculator so you are not still walking at the wrong minute.
• How to shoot blue hour Timing, exposure, white balance, a tripod, and weather — the actual checklist I use.
• Stuck and dead pixels on a Canon DSLR A bright white spec in a long exposure is often a stuck pixel. Canon has a menu trick that mapped it out on my 40D.
• What blue hour is (morning vs evening) The short window when the sky goes deep blue — twice a day, and not the same picture both times.