Sunset rule wins again.

The 20 minutes after sunset rule wins again.

I was shooting an exterior of this apartment pool in Tucson last week. I always ask the client to arrange with maintenance to have the pool lights in the pool and the perimeter lights forced on at least 30 minutes before sunset. Normally these lights are on solar cells or light sensors and turn themselves on when the sun light dissipates and the ambient light gets dark enough to trigger them on. Inevitably, they turn themselves off way after sunset and too late for the perfect twilight shot. I was watching the sun go down and as it approached 20 minutes after sunset, I was concerned that this scene was going to be boring. The sun must not behave the same in Arizona. But I shot my bracketed shots anyway, and because I was so close to the pool, I decided to shoot and upper image and then shift down with my 17mm tilt shift lens and shoot a lower image so I could stack them together in Photoshop to get more room for the top and bottom of the image.

Entrada Real in Tuscon twilight exterior real estate student housing photography