How to take a good city landscape. Photography tip.

I'd like to share this tip with those who want to take nice photos while traveling or just walking around cities, but are not happy with their results. 

As you know the most important thing in photography is light. It can change everything. Therefore for an urban landscape the most important thing is TIME OF THE DAY. 

When I'm in a city with my camera (no matter which city, it can be NYC, Venice etc), my favorite moment for taking photos is TWILIGHT. You just have to wait for the moment, when the sky is getting darker, but is not black yet. It will get saturated blue color. And for the moment when the street lights are on, in some cases also lights in the windows.   

The difference between these two types of light will create a nice balance between warm colors of street light/windows and cold blue color of the sky/air. Besides it creates romantic atmosphere.   
 

Sometimes you will need to use longer shutter speed. But it is also a good thing, since the street lights on your photo will take a nice shape of a star. And because of long shutter speed you will be able to close your aperture, which gives some crisp look and sharpness to your landscape.  

One of the optimal combinations is: aperture (f) 4-10, shutter speed between 1 and 5 seconds. But you can try other settings of course, whatever suits to the situation. While the sky is getting darker the colors will change, so will the balance between brightness of the sky and street lights. At some point, the sky will become too dark for the exposure which you need to use for street lights.   

Another issue you may deal with is tripod, since you need long shutter speed. But this can be solved in two ways: have a small tripod, that fits in your backpack/purse OR just put your camera on any stable horizontal surface (you are in a city!), like stone railings.   
 

I personally love taking landscapes in the twilight. Those are my favorites! 

I took this photo in Venice in 2013. With ISO 200, f/4,5 and shutter speed 5 seconds. Notice how everything is lit up by two sources of light, blue and yellow.   

This one is Venice too. ISO 200; f/5; 5 sec

I went to Chicago in 2015. Visited the observatory on the 94th floor of skyscraper Chicago 360. When I arrived there it looked like this. 

Not the worst view, but it doesn't have the magical feeling that twilight brings. So I waited for the right moment and was rewarded with this :). 

ISO 100; f/10; 30 sec.
 

But it doesn't have to be a big megalopolis. Here is Athens, small town in Ohio, where I lived and studied for 1 year. It was Christmas eve. To be honest, the feeling on the street was weird, because Athens is a college-town and all the students leave to celebrate Christmas with their families. So, the empty main street was all decorated with Christmas lights, the speakers were playing Christmas songs for absolutely nobody.. :) But I like solitude, so have nothing to complain about. :) 

And this is forever beautiful Rome...   

ISO 100; f/11; 5 sec.
 

But it doesn't mean you can take a good landscape only in the moment of twilight. Experiment!