5 Tips for taking skyline photos
Capturing that epic skyline can really make you feel like a pro. It’s actually not as hard as it looks, and the results can be impressive. Here are a couple of tips to help you nail that shot.
Use a tripod
There really isn’t any getting around it. If you want to take night photos, there isn’t enough light to avoid using a tripod. You’ll do even better if you have a remote release or use the timer function on your camera. Any motion - even just from you pressing the shutter - is enough to blur the photo.
Consider your aperture
Most of the time, I like capturing my lights as starbursts. This requires a really small aperture (f/16-f/22). That also allows you to get more of your scene in focus. But, sometimes it can be fun to add some whimsy and go with the large aperture for an out-of-focus shot.
an aperture of f/6.0 and setting manual focus before hitting the shutter can create a whimisical bokeh effect.
3. Getting Focus
Getting all of those sought after lights in focus can be the hardest part of nighttime photography. Our cameras struggle to grab something to focus on without a little nudging. Since you’re using a tripod and you’re already shooting with a small aperture, you have a tiny bit of leeway here. Find the highest contrast spot in your scene - that might be the edge of a big light, the corner of a building, or an object that sticks out into the sky. Use that spot to set your focus, and then switch the auto focus OFF. This will allow you to keep firing the camera without trying to grab that focus each time.
4. Don’t forget golden and blue hours
When we plan a skyline shoot, we often think of deep night. Everything is lit up at its brightest, and the contrast is greatest when it is dark. But consider getting there a little early to catch golden hour and blue hour light. The light across the city, the color in the sky, and the yellow lights on the blue sky are all really beautiful effects. You might find you like those shots even better than the ones you planned for!
5. Expose brighter than you think you should
It feels like a skyline photo should be dark, with only the brightest lights popping out to create that great effect. What you see on your LCD, however, is usually going to feel dark when you get it onto your computer. You actually want more glow on the buildings than you think you do, and you’ll like seeing the outlines of the buildings against the sky. It is counter-intuitive, but trust me and shoot at least one or two shots to be exposed brighter than you think looks right in camera.
