West End Night

In Edinburgh’s West End where Princes Street becomes Shandwick Place, the warm-lit window of The Rutland building anchors a cool blue-hour street scene. The streaking city lights contrast the facing floodlit tower of St John’s Episcopal Church, Edinburgh Castle and St. Cuthbert’s Church in the distance. This is a pavement-level shot in the heart of the lively West End area. The location is obviously easily accessible, and better still, it offers several other photo options.

A long exposure is a great way to blur vehicles and people moving through the frame in night shots like this, which if frozen in the image, would create a different narrative to the shot. Creating smooth ribbons of light in the city through long exposure is a fun way to get a feeling of movement in an image. The results can be unexpected and vary a lot, so trial and error is key. Various exposure time settings and constantly changing patterns of light will yield different results so keep trying until you get some images you are happy with. Watch out for over exposed highlights and reduce exposure times if required. Try and time your shot for the moments after the traffic lights turn green so you can be assured of constantly moving light through the image.