Blue hour is the period just before sunrise and right after sunset when the sun is slightly below the horizon and the indirect light gives a predominant blue color. According to Wiki, the phrase “Blue Hour” comes from French l’heure bleue. For photographers, this is an amazing time to take pictures, however it is somewhat unpredictable and lasts for about 5 – 10 mins at the most, within about 30 minutes before sunrise or after sunset.
These all are long exposure pictures and its very tricky to get a perfect long exposure panorama especially when I am creating these panoramas by stitching multiple frames in Lightroom. I will probably write about how I create these panoramas in Lightroom at a later date.
These are my favorites from the last couple of year’s panoramas. Incidentally these are also some of the most popular blue hour panoramas sold to local businesses in Outer Banks and North Carolina hotels.
Blue Hour at the Old Orchard Beach (aka OOB) in Maine
One of the most popular tourist location around Portland is the Old Orchard Beach. The pier is quite old and one of the hot spots for all generations, especially during summer & spring times.
This panorama was taken while the sun was still hovering around the horizon (hence, technically, this may not be a true Blue Hour picture) but I could not miss the golden bluish colors in the sky and the water.
Blue Hour at the Atlantic Beach in North Carolina
The Atlantic Beach in North Carolina is located on the Bogue Banks of the Atlantic ocean. The beach along this region is crisp & very beautiful. Other beaches with fishing piers close to the Atlantic Beach are the Crystal Beach, Wrightsville Beach, Emerald Beach and others.
This blue hour panorama is done with a long exposure of almost 30 seconds. I used several neutral density filters to balance the exposures of the sky and the surf on the waves.
Blue Hour at the Hatteras Beach in Outer Banks, North Carolina
I visited the Outer Banks in North Carolinas several times in a span of a couple of years while I was living in Charlotte. In those years between 2015 & 2018 this Atlantic coast was hit by several big storms and hurricanes that severely destroyed some of the fantastic piers in the Hatteras area.
The Frisco Pier lies at the southern tip of Outer Banks. In off seasons like winter, the area does not see much inhabitants. Apart from a few local residents who live there permanently all through the year, most of the other residents move inland & other areas of North & South Carolina. I was lucky to get the Frisco Pier in some shape before it was complete destroyed & taken out in 2018.
Blue Hour at the Rodanthe Beach in Outer Banks, North Carolina
The Rodanthe Pier and this area was made famous in 2008-2009 by the movie Nights in Rodanthe that showed a multi-storied wooden house precariously structured on the ocean. The Rodanthe Pier lies around the central part of the Outer Banks and very close to the roads connecting OBX to the mainland.
This is a true blue hour picture, exposed from 10 seconds on the brighter left side to about 30 seconds on the right. Since the blue hour is unpredictable and lasts anything from 5 minutes to about 10 minutes, there is no possibility of a second shot. The light changes too quickly for a multi-frame panorama picture like this and takes a lot of experience and practice to produce a good image.
If you are like me and prefer to take the shot in the right way and not spend hours on a computer manipulating the frames in a photo editor, then these multi-frame long exposures could become your favorite projects that will challenge you in many ways and sharpen your photography techniques and skills immensely.
Blue Hour at the Kure Beach in North Carolina
Every time I went to the Kure beach, I found it to be more populated with locals and tourists than some of the other beaches nearby. Fortunately, the crowd left around sunset time but I had to wait slightly longer to avoid children coming into the frame.
The lights on the pier probably gives you the hint that the timing is off – this is well past the blue hour technically but I was able to get the mild blue tone by over exposing by +2 to +3 in camera.
The pier lights added more challenge to long exposure shots but I am glad the way the final picture came out. You can see some over-exposed hot spots of the reflection of the pier lights on the bottom left corner of the image. I decided to keep it the way it was photographed but you can easily adjust the area in any photo editor.