How I got the shot: Richard James Taylor on capturing Dubrovnik's golden hour

12.11.2023 - 09:15 / nationalgeographic.com

This is the view from the peak of Mount Srđ at dusk, looking out across the Old Town and harbour of Dubrovnik. The city’s historical core has remained virtually untouched since it was completed in the 13th century, and I was keen to convey its distinctly ethereal atmosphere. Looking to capture the magic of the walled city, I chose to shoot the view as the streetlamps in the Old Town were flickering into life.

Drones have made it much easier to achieve this kind of aerial view, but I opted to use my camera, which I always find provides me with a wider range of shots. Carrying my Canon 5DS along with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens at a focal length of 70mm, I took a cable-car to the top of the mountain. With the light so low, the town was very dark in comparison to the sea, so I used a neutral density grad filter to maintain a sense of balance, creating a unity between foreground and background. 

The lighting was quite tricky with this shot. As I was shooting into the sunset, I needed to wait until the sun had dipped beyond the horizon before I could achieve an image without lens flare. By this time, however, the available light was minimal, so I mounted my camera on a tripod to avoid camera shake, attached a cable release and set the exposure time to around four seconds. After this, it was just a question of waiting until the natural and artificial light sources were in perfect harmony.

If you want to be trusted, you need to prove you can see assignments through to completion. Set yourself some projects and shoot them as though they were real. Try to work in a visually consistent way, taking the time to develop your eye. Consider how the images could work in a layout — perhaps even put one together after the shoot. Before long, the techniques and processes that you need to make a good feature will start to feel like second nature, by which time you’re well on your way to a successful career.