A last cup of coffee while sitting on the promenade at Llandudno's North Shore turned into a full blown time lapse photography session as the cloudy sky caught the last rays of the setting sun and the lights of the seafront hotels and pier winked on.
This time of transition from light to dark is one of my favourite times of day.
When away from town I guess my best time is dawn, as dark gives way to light and the sky goes through a myriad colour changes as the sun approaches the eastern horizon.
But in an urban setting, with artificial lights illuminating the architecture, it's dusk that's my favourite time.
I love watching and filming as the lighting emphasis moves, over the course of just half an hour or so, from the brightly lit sky just after sunset, to the brightly lit buildings as the sky grows darker.
Another fascinating change occurs in the colour temperature of the light.
Normally our eye/brain combination compensates for changes in the colour temperature of the light, peforming a constant auto white balance that renders the scene in front of us as close to neutral as possible.
The camera has no such facility (so long as you've set the white balance to a fixed setting - I use daylight all the time), and thus shows the changes in colour temperature in all their glory.
For instance, this time lapse starts with a very neutral white balance, but as the light temperature of the sky cools after sunset the clouds turn increasingly blue.
Meanwhile, the artificial lights, operating at a much lower (more yellow) colour temperature, provide a wonderful orange colour contrast to the blue of the sky, eventually becoming the dominant colour as the sky turns increasingly black.
Filename - llandudno timelapse 18.mp4
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 24mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 1/10 sec @ f4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1.6 secs @ f4, ISO100
Shooting interval - 6 seconds
Location - Llandudno, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p 30fps
Clip duration - 23 secs
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.