The most important camera setting that you’ll need to have an understanding of is Manual mode. You’re going to need to shoot manual if you plan to capture beautiful twilight photos.

Since you’ll be shooting manual, you’ll be in control of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Knowing these 3 settings is essential to twilight photography, and honestly, photography in general.

ISO

For your ISO, you’re going to want to keep it very low. Since twilight photos are a very low light situation, it’s easy for the photo to be quite noisy. Shooting at a low ISO will help that issue.

ISO 100, or even lower, is perfectly acceptable.

Aperture

What you set your aperture to is a bit of a personal choice since it will change the feel of the photos. I start off shooting at F8 and vary that setting depending on the lighting situation and my desired outcome.

F8 is a great aperture to start with for any beginner.

Shutter Speed

Now, shutter speed is going to change constantly. It will be completely different from job-to-job. The angle of the sun, weather, type of architecture, and so much more play into the amount of available light.

The amount of available light will determine what your shutter speed should be. Use your LCD monitor and change the shutter speed until you get it to a place where you think it’s a nice balance between ambient light and the light coming from the house.

As it gets darker, you’ll need to keep the shutter open a bit longer to let in enough light. Finding the right balance is key.

In my opinion, the ideal balance between ambient light and artificial light coming from the house is displayed in the photo below.