Dusk to Dawn - Share your low light photos to win a £500 voucher!

Round Eight of our Amateur Photographer of the Year competition is now open for entries! The theme for this round of APOY is Dusk to Dawn so we want to see your best low light photos, taken at dusk, dawn and everything in between.

This is another of our more open rounds in terms of subject matter, and always invites exciting and original entries. Cities are almost the perfect dusk-to-dawn subject, especially when they are photographed in the blue hour, when twilight and artificial illumination balance so beautifully. You could also shoot indoors, in an atmospheric café or using the light of a woodburning stove in the home, or at a night-time gig or event. It’s a great theme for landscapes, too, be that a low sun or a classic night shot of the Milky Way. The subject choice is yours.

ENTER APOY ROUND EIGHT, DUSK TO DAWN, HERE!

Deadline: 4th November 11:59pm GMT

Guest judge for Round Eight, Dusk to Dawn: Liam Man

Your guest judge for Round Eight, Dusk to Dawn, is Liam Man, a travel and landscape photographer who is a Sony Europe Ambassador, and renowned for his mastery of light-painting and breathtaking landscapes. By bringing his own lights into the night, he celebrates the hidden beauty of extraordinary places in ways that and inspire the imagination. He has worked for clients such as Adobe, Frontrunner, DJI and Hyundai. Visit www.theliamman.com

Guidance for entering APOY 2024, Dusk to Dawn

See some of our people-related guides and inspiration features to help you with your entries:

ENTER APOY ROUND EIGHT, DUSK TO DAWN, HERE!

Inspiration

If you’re planning to enter our Dusk to Dawn round, take these tips from three of last year’s top ten photographers

Baris Buke, The Netherlands

Sony A6000, Vivitar 28mm f/2.5, 1/100sec at ISO 1000

model posed in tiled room with bright red light dusk to dawn example — Image: Baris Buke

Baris took the fifth spot in this round last time, with a highly stylised and eye-catching shot. The judges said: ‘Witty, intriguing and original – there’s a lot going on in this single frame. The pose is awkward in a good way, and the overall wash of red adds to the sense of oddness.’

Baris says: ‘This picture is the result of late-night spontaneity. My friends and I were celebrating Halloween in an apartment that had cheap RGB lighting in every room, including the restroom. I tend to bring my camera to every social event or party, not just to document fun moments but also for spontaneous opportunities like this one.

I used a Sony A6000 and brought two lenses with me: a Canon 50mm f/1.8 FD and a Vivitar 28mm f/2.5. I ended up using the 28mm because of how tight the space was. The only light available was the RGB lighting in the restroom, making it a very dark environment. I did my best to get the right exposure while maintaining sharpness. The Vivitar lens is very soft when wide open, so I wanted to stop down to mitigate that issue.

In the end, I made the most of the limited equipment. I really liked how the background light created subtle highlights on the model. For the soft light in front of the model, we used a white wall behind me to bounce any available light onto her, which helped reveal the details of her face and outfit, though just slightly.

Despite the challenging lighting and limited space, we ended up taking the picture in the restroom. This setting added a funny contrast to the costume, the lighting, and the party happening behind me, and overall I’m really happy with how it turned out.’

Angela Lambourn, Leicestershire

Nikon D75, 50mm, 1sec at f/11, ISO 2500

dashed orange light flickering through the middle of the frame of dark low light creative scene dusk to dawn — Image: Angela Lambourn

Angela came second in last year’s Low Light round with her eerily beautiful landscape image. Guest judge Niall McDiarmid said of the picture: ‘The wonderful late evening colours blend this scene into complete abstraction. The dashed orange light flickering through the middle of the frame provides a strong central focal point while still giving the image a dreamlike, floating quality.’

Angela says: ‘Extreme long-exposure nightscapes can be stunning to view, but often involve meticulous planning and use of tripods, filters and the like, which does not suit my more immediate style of photography. Finding myself with camera in hand on board a moving ship in the Norwegian fjords in the middle of the night, my options for landscape photography were limited. My only alternatives were to either go indoors or go abstract. I chose the latter, deciding to embrace the situation and work with what I had.

The distant coastline across the fjord was just visible through the darkness, with a tiny speck of a single light on the shore. I set focus to infinity and selected a shutter speed of one second. ISO was set to 2,500. Panning the camera horizontally during the exposure, I also followed the gentle motion
of the waves, capturing the single light as a gently undulating golden line through the inky blue of the sea, the sky and the distant land.

I find the disadvantage of this style of photography is that it is unrepeatable, which equally becomes its advantage. Of several shots, this was my favourite of the night. Very much a process of trial and error, combining the movement of the camera with appropriate shutter speed and exposure settings to get visually pleasing results. It is however a joy to experiment and “play”, creating an alternative image that gives an impression of the scene rather than documenting a stunning and detailed landscape at night.’

Charles Ashton, Worcestershire

Nikon Z 9, 50mm f/1.2 S, 1/100sec at f/1.2, ISO 1100

canid man on a bus capturing moment of distance and contemplation — Image: Charles Ashton

Charles was awarded third place in 2023 for his image The Night Bus. The judges said: ‘Charles has captured a moment of distance and contemplation, with a sense that the man is separated from all that is happening around him. And we’re left very much wanting to know more.’

Charles says: ‘This image was captured on a wet dark November night at a north London bus stop. I found a location where the buses were passing frequently during the rush hour and there wasn’t too much distracting light from the other side of the road. The rain and darkness are essential ingredients as they add atmosphere and the internal lighting in the bus sets the stage.

The lighting in the interior is fairly consistent so it is possible to anticipate where the passengers’ faces are going to be illuminated, and I underexposed by one stop to keep the highlights in range. The settings tell how dark it was and underexposing in these conditions is essential. When the perfect passenger arrived, I composed the shot with enough of the bus for context and caught him just as he was beginning to look at me.

Post processing was initially done in Lightroom with global adjustments and some dodging and burning. One of the passengers had a blue shirt, which was darkened and desaturated. Distractions were removed in Photoshop and a layer with an HDR treatment was blended with a layer mask. The image was returned to Lightroom for some colour grading using the HSL module. The final result is one of my favourite images.’

The camera club award

Do you belong to a camera club? You can accumulate points for your society when you enter APOY, and after all the ten rounds are complete, the club with the most points will win a superb ViewSonic X1-4K projector worth £1,500, with image quality powered by advanced 3rd generation LED technology that offers a 60,000-hour lifespan without lamp replacement. In addition, the member of the winning club who contributed the most points to their club’s overall tally will win a ViewSonic ColorPro VP2786-4K monitor worth £1,000.

The Young APOY award

For the fourth time, we are running an APOY Young Photographer of the Year competition, to encourage our up-and-coming snappers. Entrants should be 21 or younger by the competition’s final closing date of 31 December 2024. All the categories are the same as for the main contest – simply select the Young APOY option on Photocrowd when you upload your images. Entry is free. Each category winner receives a one-year Adobe Photography Plan subscription, worth £120. The overall Young APOY winner receives a £500 voucher to spend at Camera Centre UK*.

What you could win

APOY prizes:

The winner of each round of APOY receives a voucher for £500 to spend at Camera Centre UK*. In addition to this, the winner of each round will also receive a one-year subscription to Adobe’s All Apps plan, worth £660. The runner-up of each round will receive a one-year subscription to Adobe’s Photography plan, worth £120. The overall winner after ten rounds wins a £1,000 voucher to spend at Camera Centre UK.

Young APOY prizes:

The winner of each round of Young APOY receives a one-year subscription to Adobe’s Photography plan, worth £120. The overall winner of Young APOY will receive a £500 voucher to spend at Camera Centre UK*.

Camera club prizes:

The camera club with the highest number of points after ten rounds will receive a 4K ViewSonic projector worth £1,500, while a ViewSonic monitor worth £1,000 will go to the club member who contributed the most points to the winning club’s final points tally.