The Power of Blue Hour

Blue Hour = Blue!

Blue hour is blue. Not kidding. Blue. Blue. Blue. Hence the name. If you haven’t even gotten out to photograph that special time of evening from shortly after the sun goes down till it’s actually dark – you should! It’s so interesting to see how your camera sees it too, which will probably be rather different than your eyeballs. My Canon 5DIII sees in that low light MUCH better than I do… so it makes it a fun surprise every time.

Thing is, alot of novice sunset shooters out there mistakenly think once the big huzzah of the splashy sun-going-down bit is over, it’s over. But that’s only the first part. If you stick around, you’ll see the sky and landscape turn into a whole different light show. Featuring blue, for sure. But the horizon will often have some sort of warm glow to it, in contrast to the cool colors everywhere else.

On the day I shot this photo, the sun really left early. But the blue tones that were left were pretty stunning.
And if you auto-bracket 3, 5, or more shots… you have options! You can either make an HDR shot like I did here… or pick the best one of the lot and work with that one. I do that sometimes too, like on this one.

Go For Sunset; Stay For the Afterglow

So that’s my recommendation, sunset lovers everywhere! Go for Act 1 (Stunning Sunset Splendor), but make sure to stay for Act 2 (Blue Hour Power).
Even if Act 1 is weak – Act 2 will sometimes make you glad you came for the show. 😀