I had a discussion today about twilight shots and why to do them so I thought I’d recap the fundamentals.

My experience is that sellers love twilight shots and so do agents. A twilight shot has the capability to transform a really ugly property into something dazzling and dramatic. If there’s a view involved it gets even better. Twilight has the power to hide those mundane details and make any home look magnificent. My wife and I have gotten several listing simply because a home seller saw a flyer of ours with a twilight shot or saw one of our listings on the web that had a twilight shot.

1. Plan and schedule the shoot using the naval observatory site or the LightTrac app. I love the LightTrac app it not only shows you what time sunset will happen but it shows you exactly which direction the sun will be. You need to be setup and ready about 15 min before sunset and the best light will start around 15 min after sunset and last for 10 to 15 minutes depending on the latitude, the weather and clouds.
2. Turn on ALL the interior lights, landscaping lights and exterior lights if there are any. It’s easy to underestimate the amount of time it takes to get all the lights on, especially if the homeowner is not there to show you where all the switches are. I’ve found that the exterior spots can frequently be too much (too bright). You can selectively turn each bulb off by unscrewing the bulb slightly. A small step ladder is handy for this.
3. Some photographers like to hose down the driveway or cement areas that are in the shot so they are wet for a twilight shot.
4. Use a tripod and cable release to eliminate camera vibration because exposure times will be several seconds or longer. If you don’t have a cable release use the interval timer to release the shutter. Some people have said, “I can’t to twilight shots because I don’t have a DLSR that has high ISOs”. Not a problem, with a tripod you just make long exposures. In fact, better to use a low ISO and long exposure times so you have minimum noise.
5. Shoot raw so you will be able to adjust the white balance and exposure to your taste in post processing.
6. Set your camera to a low ISO (100) to get better color and less noise. This is probably not as important with newer high ISO DSLR bodies.
7. Set your camera on manual and use a aperture around f/5.6 or f/8. Lenses are typically sharpest around the mid-point of their aperture range. Adjust the shutter speed to produce a normal exposure. Check the LCD and adjust until the result looks good. A lot of bright lights can fool the light meter.
8. I’ve been asked what to meter on. The biggest problem I’ve had with twilight shots is exterior spot lights. The only way to deal with these is trial and error. Every case will be different. Do a lot of bracketing and if you are shooting RAW you will be fine.
9. Flash or continuous lighting can improve the photo by adding extra light and drama to landscaping or areas of the exterior that are completely dark. See Vince Destefano’s (the master of twilight shoots) examples of how to use rechargeable spots for lighting accents.

Twilight shots can make a very ordinary home look dazzling and hide ugly defects. Everyone loves twilight shots and they look great in your portfolio.

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