When I first arrived at Edinburgh, I was greeted by the typical greyish UK weather. I was kind of disappointed but since I was already there I decided to see what I can get out of it. I’ve seen many nice photographs taken from Calton Hill, so despite the appalling weather decided to go up there to have a look.
We took the longer, more scenic route and soon was greeted by a panoramic view of the city on the North side.
Walking further along, we eventually arrived at the Dugald Stewart monument where most photographs were taken.
As luck would have it, we had a beautiful day shooting Loch Lomond and the other lochs, so when the sun is still shining on the way back, and having seen the starting of a good sunset along the way, I asked Jed to go back up to Calton Hill.
At the foot of the hill, towards Princes Street is the beginning of a beautiful sunset. I slightly underexposed the shot to silhouette the buildings as well as increased the saturation in post-processing to enhance the colours.
Up on Calton Hill facing the Dugald Stewart monument, several photographers already setup their tripods, shooting the sunset. Unfortunately the monument isn’t lit up, so as the sky grows darker, so did almost everything else.
To get the shot below, I had to blend 2 shots – one taken earlier before all was dark, and another with a darker sky which had a more prominent sunset. I also brought up the saturation of the darker shot a bit here to bring out the colours of the sunset.
From another position, I shot the Edinburgh Castle and the Balmoral clock tower, both of which are thankfully lit up.
Finally I have the shots that I wanted from Calton Hill and I am happy.