Shooting a New York Cityscape at Twilight for Architectural Photographers in NYC.
Architectural photographers in NYC love shooting exteriors. My client, Schimenti Construction, which builds numerous high-end retail spaces, asked me to shoot some exteriors of some of them, like this Van Cleef & Arpels store on the east side of New York. They wanted a twilight shot that was light enough to capture the detail of the exterior but dark enough to have the interior pop. This was back in January. Not only was it eleven degrees that day, but I had a minimal amount of time to get the shot.
The image above is the base image straight from the camera. The overall exposure is good with enough details showing on the outside, but the interior is overexposed, and the sky is not only too bright but also a dull grey.
So I composited the base image with a darker version and a lighter version, resulting in the image below.
After that, I added another exposure of just the interior, where we can see all the details and some action inside the store. Next, I colored the sky blue. A blue sky is a must, as one of the reasons twilight shots are so beautiful is the contrast between the cool blue sky and the warm, incandescent lighting inside and outside the building.
Next was the removal of distracting elements, such as street signs and garbage cans. Thank God for generative fill. I wanted to remove the food truck, but despite my best efforts, I couldn’t replace it with anything I was comfortable with, so I darkened it to minimize its presence. The car was the tricky part. Even with generative fill, this took some time to get right. The bottom half of the retail space next door is completely AI-generated.
Lastly, I warmed up the buildings to the left, added a taxi cab from another shot, and, using generative fill, added some people walking down the street.
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