Dusk shots - b/w - "floodlight" building

[Sim2]

Hi there,

I don't shot much architecture and even less at dusk and wondered if the collective could assist with a query?

Scenario was: a long barn with no external lighting other than some cheap external "floodlights" on spikes in the ground illuminating the side of the barn about every 15 feet/metres or so - think garden lamps rather than proper building floodlights. This light did not reach up to the roof. Sun was setting on the otherside of the barn - no moonlight or streetlights.

The intention was to show that the barn was lit by lamps but still have detail on the walls and ideally for the roof to be not a blank black mass. Metered the building ok and (for the barn) got a very acceptable exposure/print - enough to show that it was getting dark and that the lights shone onto the building in smallish spots. Enough detail in foreground grass/paths to take it where I wanted in the print. So far, so good. The sky...hmmm. Not burnt out but bright. It can be brought down by burning-in but perhaps not ideal. The sky metered around 4 stops brighter than the side of the barn.

With this scenario, if I have explained it at all well :-/ , how could the sky go dark? Like "it's evening sun is setting" dark?

Short of a graduated ND filter or a large N- dev, would a red filter have helped tame the blue light in the sky or would that have just left no light to play with anywhere?

Just musing on this really, so any help/thoughts from the dusk shooters out there is appreciated!
Sim2.

 

[Mark_S]

One way to get this might be with a double exposure - set the camera on a tripod, put a red filter on the lens, and mid-day or late morning, shoot the barn. The ratio of the brightness on the side of the barn to the sky should be less than looking into the setting sun. The red filter will help to darken the sky and hopefully not darken the roof/side of the barn too much. Focus on getting the exposure on the roof right. Now go and read a book, and wait for nightfall Once there is little ambient light and the dominant light is from the 'floodlights' do a second exposure, this time looking at the light on the side of the barn, where it is lit by the floodlights, and underexpose by a bit. If it all comes out right, the blue sky comes out dark because of the red filter on the first exposure, and is dark in the second exposure. The mid-day illumination of the side of the barn is augmented by the lights, giving it the appearance of being late afternoon, the roof exposure should have been set in the first exposure.