Stefan Official
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 p.1 #1 · Heidelberg in Light – From Golden Hour to Night Glow | |
About an hour before the blue hour, I was standing on the Philosophenweg, scouting the spot where I wanted to shoot later. Everything was still gray and overcast.
I spent quite a while scrolling on my phone, just passing the time, when suddenly I heard people around me murmuring in amazement. Curious about what was happening, I looked up — and everything had changed.
The entire scene looked surreal, bathed in unbelievably rich colors and glowing light. I could hardly recognize the place. For a moment, I thought it looked too unreal to be true — but that’s how easily Mother Nature can surprise you.
Nervously, I grabbed my camera from the backpack and started shooting in all directions — 30 meters to the left, then 20 to the right — trying to capture every bit of it before it vanished.
Just ten minutes later, it was all gone again. The light faded, the clouds returned, and the magic moment was over. A truly wonderful scene — one I almost missed.
📷 Camera: Sony Alpha 7R V
🔭 Lens: Sony FE 28–70mm F2.0 GM
📍 Tripod: Benro Cyanbird Carbon Tripod + FS20PRO Head
🔍 Focal Length: 43 mm
🌞 Aperture: f/5.6
🌙 ISO: 160
⏳ Exposure: 1/8 s
 The Colors of Heidelberg by Stefan Zimmermann Official, auf Flickr
The time window for a photo like this is only about ten minutes.
Before that, the remaining daylight is still too strong, and the city lights can’t yet assert themselves.
Ten minutes later, the late blue hour fades into night – the blue tones on the rooftops disappear, and everything drifts toward black.
The margin is tiny, but if you hit it just right, you’re rewarded with a magical interplay of warm and cool tones – the image begins to glow.
Those ten minutes are also needed to capture a full exposure series, leaving almost no room for timing errors.
This technique allows for an extremely wide dynamic range, reduces noise even further, and enhances both detail and clarity.
📷 Camera: Sony Alpha 7R V
🔭 Lens: Sony FE 28–70mm F2.0 GM
📍 Tripod: Benro Cyanbird Carbon Tripod + FS20PRO Head
🔍 Focal Length: 42 mm
🌞 Aperture: f/8
🌙 ISO: 100
⏳ Exposure Bracketing (HDR-RAW): 2 s, 4 s, 8 s, 15 s, 30 s, 40 s, 50 s, 60 s, 75 s, 90 s
 Heidelberg Aglow by Stefan Zimmermann Official, auf Flickr
A magical night over Heidelberg, where reflections meet history.
Heidelberg is practically just around the corner from where I live, yet I hadn’t been there in over 15 years. The city has so much to offer – history, atmosphere, and truly beautiful photo opportunities. During my walk along the Philosophenweg, old memories slowly resurfaced. If you’ve never been there, I can only recommend taking a stroll along the circular trail, letting your thoughts wander, and simply enjoying the moment. The later view of the castle and old town, especially as night begins to fall, is a real highlight.
When I got there, a group of Indian tourists approached me. They spoke a bit of German and asked if I could take some photos of them. When they asked whether I was a good photographer, I could only grin sheepishly. I’ve been asked many things before, but that one was new to me :-)
We ended up talking for quite a while. I showed them some of my photos and almost missed the blue hour – which was actually the main reason for my trip :-) Encounters like this seem to happen every time I’m out shooting – meeting kind people and just enjoying the moment. They were incredibly friendly. I honestly lost count of how many times they thanked me. In the coming days, I’ll also share some photos taken along the Philosophenweg.
For this photo trip, I wanted to take my time and stay from the afternoon until late at night. Unfortunately, around 11 p.m., many of the lights were turned off. I was both surprised and disappointed, since I had planned to stay up all night shooting.
This scene is almost always photographed during the blue hour, as the contrast at night is nearly impossible to control – bright city lights in the foreground, with dark mountains behind them that almost seem to swallow the light. Capturing that in a single exposure during deep night is simply impossible.
That’s why I created a series of exposures ranging from 2 seconds to 3 minutes – a total of 11 shots – to build a single HDR RAW file. The reward is the intense, extraordinary play of colors and reflections, along with the full brilliance of all the lights that you simply don’t get during the blue hour. The dynamic range required for this is, as mentioned, enormous, so a single exposure wouldn’t be enough.
What makes it even more challenging is that ships keep passing by, changing the waves, or the wind picks up and moves the water’s surface. It always takes a while before the reflections calm down again and you can continue shooting. All of this makes for far-from-ideal conditions when creating an HDR RAW from multiple exposures. You really need a lot of patience, otherwise the frames won’t align perfectly in the end.
📷 Camera: Sony Alpha 7R V
🔭 Lens: Sony FE 28–70mm F2.0 GM
📍 Tripod: Benro Cyanbird Carbon Tripod + FS20PRO Head
🔍 Focal Length: 40mm
🌞 Aperture: f/8
🌙 ISO: 100
⏳ Exposure Bracketing (HDR-RAW): 2 s, 4 s, 8 s, 15 s, 30 s, 45 s, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min
 Heidelberg Nights by Stefan Zimmermann Official, auf Flickr
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