Perfect Twilight Shots with Flash

Capturing the perfect light at twilight can be really simple and is something that can be done with minimal equipment – just a tripod and your camera. It’s all about knowing the right time to shoot and having the patience to wait for the light to be right.

In this photography class, Karl is in St Ives, Cornwall, where he shows you how to get the perfect twilight shot. He explains his techniques and shares some top tips for low light photography and also demonstrates how to use fill in flash to enhance your images.

In this class:

  • Landscape photography tips
  • Photographing at twilight
  • How to photograph in low light
  • Using fill in flash for landscape photography

Questions? Please post them in the comments section below.

Comments

    1. Hi, the flash was used to catch a little light on the buildings closest to camera. The 30 seconds was used to capture the lights and town in the distance as well as the twilight sky.

      1. How long was the flashing going for? Was it a single quick flash or were you flashing non stop during the 30 seconds?

        1. Hi, just one single flash during the 30 seconds but if there was not enough exposure you can either increase the power on the flash or flash it multiple times during the 30 seconds.

    1. Hi, no it was set to daylight so that the blue colour of the twilight would look more intense, however these were shot in RAW so the colour balance can be fully adjusted afterwards if necessary.

  4. Bonjour Karl c’est toujours avec beaucoup d’attention et d’intérêt que je regarde ces leçons pour ensuite les intégrer et les exécuter à la perfection ;Très beau travail merci Karl

  5. Hi Karl,
    You didn’t mention the grad filter in the video but I saw one attached. Was that a 2 or 3 stop filter just to balance out the sky/foreground exposure?

    1. Hi Chris, I had it on earlier while there was still orange light in the sky but I’d taken it off by the time twilight arrived. But you’ll see me using them in plenty of other modules and I generally have a 3 stop soft grad for most of my landscape work.

  6. Hi Karl, how do you figure the amount of power needed for the flash for situation like this? Thanks!

    1. Hi Plastickid, if you jumped to the ‘Essentials’ section and the very basics of photography even if you’ve already covered this you will remember that once you have mastered the fundamentals of manual control and knowing your aperture values and shutters (all of which is easy to do) that light is simply like a volume dial on a music system – you can turn it up or down manually – and you can make it correspond to almost any of the camera settings you choose in doing so. It really is that simple.

  7. St Ives! Such a vibrant town in the summer. I have plenty of photos taken here and many opportunities for the photographer. Such a good vantage point up high. Some great tips here about timing, thanks.

  8. So for exposure balance what are you suggesting, and when you say optimum time to shoot. Still working on my twilight shots!

    1. Hi Wei, I generally use 5600K colour balance and shoot in RAW then I adjust the colour balance in the software after if necessary. If you adjust your colour balance to compensate for sunset or twilight you can often lose the feeling of the colour of the light, so I prefer to shoot at 5600K (daylight/flash balance) and then adjust after.

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