Twilight Descends, New York City

Twilight Descends, New York City. Twilight is the time of day when the sun is just below the horizon, and light diffused by the atmosphere provides illumination. That light is often soft, and richly colorful. It is one of the best times of the day for photography! This perfectly ordinary New York City street becomes an intriguing subject come twilight. The magenta tones in the sky mix with street light to paint this subject with beautiful color.

When shooting urban streets here in New York City (or any city), you will find that twilight provides warmer, more expressive images than late evening. The mix of urban street light and soft twilight can yield surprising and very pleasing color palettes. Once the sky is dark, street light becomes harsher in color and scenes tend to take on too much contrast.

To make the best of twilight, it is best to scout out your subject and be ready beforehand. Twilight typically provides no more than ten minutes to a half hour or so of peak color. So be ready! If you are, the light will do all the work for you in making those images look their best. In so much of photography, the light is more important than the subject. It can transform the most mundane of subjects into a thing of beauty!

Camera: Nikon D60, 18-55mm VR lens, shot handheld with VR. Raw image converted using Raw Therapee, AMaZE Demosaicing.