How to shoot Twilight – Hints & Tips

White Balance

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This comparison shows the effect that your White Balance has on your results. The right image was shot at the Daylight setting while the left one was shot at the Tungsten position. Note how much cooler it is. If you shoot in Raw, however, you can change the White Balance setting afterwards.

How to Shoot Twilight - Tim Gartside

Top Tips

Noise Reduction

How to Shoot Twilight - Noise Reduction


Long exposure times increase the risk of image noise spoiling your pictures. Most cameras offer built-in Noise Reduction for long exposures to reduce this (you’ll find it in the menu). But leaving this feature on will increase your processing time between shots dramatically, so you may prefer to turn it off and apply your noise reduction in Photoshop on your computer afterwards, where you’ll also have more control over the end result.

ND Filters

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If you’ve stopped the aperture right down but still can’t get shutter speeds as long as you’d like, try using a neutral density filter over the lens to reduce the amount of light entering the lens. This will increase your shutter speeds still further.