Christmas Lights at Temple Square. A Salt Lake City must see!

Every year, during the month of December in downtown Salt Lake City, visitors and locals alike delight in the luminary display at Temple Square. For many, this is a must see (and rightly so).

It also serves as the perfect location to work on urban shooting at dusk. It seems one of the most frequent questions I get is how to get those glowing cityscape images that just sing with life.

The answer really is a matter of timing more than anything else. The key is to be shooting at the time when the ambient (existing) light balances with the artificial light in your scene. Most commonly, this artificial light is displayed in building windows or street lights. At Temple Square, however, this is displayed in thousands upon thousand of Christmas lights.

Below are a couple of tips that will help you in your quest for that dusk/dawn city keeper.

1. Be prepared and ready once the magic moment arrives. This period of time when all the light balances goes very quickly. Shoot too early and the sky is pale an uninteresting. Shoot too late and the sky is black and…uninteresting. The indigo sky is what sets everything else off. It’s what gives the artificial lights their special glow as it contrasts heavily in color and tone.

2. Decide whether you’ll be shooting into or away from the horizon. This makes a huge difference in timing. The part of the sky opposite the setting sun horizon will hold much less light, and will go dark much sooner.

3. Take your tripod. These are often times very lengthy exposures given the fact that there is little in the way of ambient light. The image in this post is a 5 sec. exposure.

4. Bump up your ISO. Woah there! No need to send it through the roof, but I routinely bump it up to ISO 400 or so. This simply allows me to capture more images during this fleeting time, while sacrificing little in the way of image quality.

5. Don’t forget your Grad ND filters. They are particularly handy when shooting the western sky (where the sun has just set), as this will still be a good deal brighter than your foregrounds during all but the last moments of dusk. I used a 2-stop hard step Grad ND in this image.

6. Don’t forget composition! Colors and shapes and new times of day to shoot are all super cool, but it still doesn’t negate the need to put it all together in a manner that engages the viewer. I chose to create a frame of sorts around the main subject (Salt Lake Temple) in this image with the prolific Christmas lights on either side of the image area.

7. Use live view to check focus. Many times your camera will struggle to attain focus when there’s little light out. Take advantage of live view on your camera’s LCD screen and zoom in to check your focus and make sure you don’t end up with a soft image.

Hopefully, these tips will help you in your efforts to shoot dynamic cityscapes!

The truth is, these photographers have the right idea, it’s just that (IMO) the execution is poor. There is a fine line between being diverse enough to cover a significant gamut of photography, and spreading yourself too thin and trying to be the veritable “Leatherman” of photographers. However, unless you’re Vincent LaForet, Tom Mangelsen, David Muench, Scott Markewitz or some other iconic and established photog in their own respective genre, you must be able to shoot numerous types of imagery, and shoot them well.

To a certain extent, this goes against much of what I’ve learned and lived by to this point in photography. Previously, I was of the mind that you should find a niche and devote yourself to mastering every aspect of that niche. Whether that be landscape, wedding, commercial or whatever–I still believe it is very important to find which type of imagery really makes your heart sing, and for which you have a great talent and skill. It’s important, however, to be able to step outside that comfort zone, and apply what you know to different types of imagery. Perhaps it’s to earn more money. Perhaps it’s to expand your creative horizons. Perhaps it’s to learn a new technical skill. Whatever the reason, commit yourself to branching out a bit and trying something new. Below are a couple of thoughts that may help you in crossing this new bridge.

1. Don’t forget the basics. While some techniques may be different with different types of imagery, the fundamentals are still the same.

A summer rainbow shines brightly over a grouping of veterans' graves at the Salt Lake City Cemetary.

2. Take what you have learned (or are particularly skilled at), and add it to what you hope to achieve. Whether you’re a master of composition, lighting, posing, filters, alternative angles or whatever–take that with you and apply it to this new area of photography. Just this morning, while shooting architectural work for a commercial client, I turned to many of my trusted landscape filters to control challenging exposures.

Fountain and Salt Lake City Temple at dusk.

3. Don’t be afraid to fail. Because you will, and that’s all there is to it. Simply stated, it’s never fun to fall short of excellence, especially when you know you have what it takes in other areas of photography. But we all know you can’t win the game if you don’t play.

Rainbow trout in Brodin Ghost Net.

4. Be a sponge. Soak it alllllll up! Scour the internet. Ask questions to accomplished photogs. Read books. Shoot, shoot, shoot. There are so many resources at our fingertips these days–there really is no excuse not to be able to excel at something if you put your heart and mind to it.

Sunset over the Middle Provo River, UT

5. Resist the urge to blame shortcomings on equipment. Strive to beat the odds regardless. Yes–there is always some piece of equipment we lust after. Sometimes, it’s a necessity. Most of the time, it’s a luxury. Most action photogs will tell you it’s necessary to have a camera that shoots 8 fps or more to capture action well. While I agree that it certainly helps to have a faster camera (as I found out this year), it’s entirely possible to nail the shot with less. I was fortunate to have several ski images published this past winter–all shot with a slower camera.

Lamson Litespeed Fly Fishing Reel

6. Be willing to take advice and apply it. ‘Nuff said.

Now go push your envelope. You will accomplish greatness in new and exciting ways. It just might give you that extra spark you’ve been needing…