8

CHAPTER
NIGHT AND LOW-LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY / City Lights

are, as you can see in the San Diego skyline shown

in Figure 8-18. These buildings appear to be much

closer together than they actually are.

The best time to shoot

In the winter and fall, it is easier to get great

cityscapes because the sun sets earlier. Offices are

lit up as many people are still at their desks with

office lights on, which provides more available

light for your photo.

In the summer months, with the sun setting after

most people leave their offices, the amount of

light available is reduced. That isn’t to say that

city looks alive with the lights twinkling in the
scene. I took this image from the 40th floor of a
hotel in downtown San Diego with a 24mm lens.

The other option is to photograph the cityscape
from a distance at ground level. This works really
well when you have an unobstructed view of the
skyline, and it is even better if the city is on a body
of water. Many times this approach requires a lon-
ger focal length to focus in on the buildings because
of the distances involved. The added advantage to
this type of shot is that the longer focal length
causes compression in the image, making things
appear to be closer to each other than they really

ABOUT THIS PHOTO The city looks alive with all the lights, which add a glow to the sky. Taken at 5 seconds, f/7.1, and ISO 400.

8-17