San Francisco from Twin Peaks
The marvelous sweeping view of San Francisco from Twin Peaks draws large crowds to this easily accessible point. On a clear day, you can see the city stretch beneath your feet for miles.
Market Street creates an almost straight line leading towards the financial district with the distinctive Transamerica Pyramid and the Bay Bridge.
The views at night are even more wondrous. Market Street turns into a light spear slicing through the dense city and the hazy sky will make the city glow golden red. Even after you finished taking your photographs, you will find it hard to leave. I could stand atop Twin Peaks for hours enjoying this unique view, were it not for the often cold winds tearing on me. The breeze can be several degrees cooler than the city streets.
How to get there
click on the map for a larger version
Besides joining a tour group, your only way up here is taking your own car. I think the way up to Twin Peaks is easier to find from Portola Drive in the south (red) while you can take another way down (blue) to 17th Street and Market Street.
From south of San Francisco, take Highway 280 into the city and follow Highway 1 / 19th Street north. From here, the Portola Drive exit is easy to find and you can simply follow it to Twin Peaks.
From downtown San Francisco, find Market Street and follow it southwest away from the financial district.
GPS position
How to photograph the San Francisco Skyline from Twin Peaks
Plan!
Take some time to look around and look for known icons such as the Golden Gate Bridge, St. Ignatius Church or City Hall. Many people do not see the Golden Gate Bridge at first. Take some time to plan your shoot, your framing options and your approach. Do not rush into action dazzled by the views. I know this advice is tough to follow, but nobody will steal your shot if you take your time. Consider if you should include the sloping road or produce a tighter crop of the busy downtown area. Take some unrushed meter readings of the brightly lit buildings.
Find a good position that suits your shot. If you want to shoot a panoramic image with the Golden Gate in the Photograph, you need to stand further to the left. If you move too far, you will miss the Oakland Harbor.
Steady!
In my Fisherman’s Wharf article, I told you to be quick and leave your tripod in your car. The exact opposite is true at Twin Peaks. Use your tripod and cable release even on bright sunny days.
Why take a handheld picture when you can steady it with a tripod? The city will not move while you set up, trust me!
Using a tripod has many advantages. You can set your camera to a narrow aperture (f/8 or f/11) to get the optimum sharpness from your lens and a decent depth of field and you do not have to worry about exposure time vs. aperture trade-off. A tripod forces you to take more time to steady your shot and you can keep an eye on your bubble level to set up straight shots.
Shoot!
Try a polarizing filter to see if you can enhance the colors or reduce the haze. Filters always reduce the available light, but since you are using a tripod, you do not have to worry about this. You are using a tripod aren’t you?
Start with a normal lens and photograph some of the spectacular views. Then use a telephoto lens and start to isolate areas of the city or even single buildings if you are fortunate to have a lens with 500mm (or equivalent) and more.
Panorama
You need to remove the polarizing filter, since panoramas cover an extremely wide field of view. The polarization of the light depends on your viewing angle with respect to the sun. The change of polarization over the entire field of view is significant. This will create distracting brightness variations across the image, especially in the sky. The result is a bad panorama.
Plan your panorama carefully before taking it! The more planning you do, the easier it will be to stitch.
I always shoot panoramas with manual exposure to ensure uniformity of exposure between the different frames. Although some tools compensate for variations, it is always desirable to start with good data. Simply set your lens to your desired aperture (e.g. f/8) and use Aperture Priority Mode (Av,A) to meter off the brightest part to determine your exposure. Then set your camera to manual and replicate the same settings (same aperture and the exposure the camera did determine). Use this setting throughout the entire panorama.
Shoot in RAW so that you can equalize the white balance between the different frames or set your camera to manual white balance and determine a good setting.
After you shot your close-ups and panoramas, consider using a normal lens again. Step back a little, set your lens to a very narrow aperture (f/11 or smaller) and include some people in your photograph. Use them to guide your viewer into the picture. If you are traveling with someone, have him or her point into the picture and shoot from behind. Such a composition creates a lot of interest with the viewer who will instantly try to find out where someone is looking and/or pointing.
Best Time of the Day and Best Season
Come in the morning to see the farthest. The air usually cleans up at night, affording you a clearer view during the early morning hours, shortly after sunrise. Come back at night or for sunset for a completely different view. The light will have changed dramatically by then.
Time required
The view from Twin Peaks is extraordinary. If you have a strong telephoto lens, you will find yourself spending at least one hour here, most likely more. If you just came to snap a couple of shots, you will probably need not much more than just 15 minutes to take it all in.
Equipment
- Tripod for Panorama Photography and to photograph under low light conditions
- Polarizing Filter or UV Filter to cut through the haze and give you a better contrast
- Telephoto Lens
- Normal Lens
- Jacket (it gets very windy)
- Water and a snack
Close Locations
- Victorian Houses at Alamo Square
- Buena Vista Park and Haight-Ashbury District
- Corona Heights Park
- Market Street
- San Francisco Mission
- Civic Center with City Hall
- Golden Gate Park: Japanese Tea Garden
- Stow Lake and Botanical Garden
- Golden Gate Park West Side
- Beach and Cliff House
- Sutro Baths and Lands End
- Lincoln Park and Legion of Honor
- Filoli
Useful Resources
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3 Comments
Your series here is really great. Have you given any thought to putting it all together in a book?
Funny that you say that. I have given it extensive consideration. Eventually I will put it all together in form of a book (or several) with tons of bonus features and chapters on photography not covered by this blog.
Thanks for the encouragement!
whenever I am in SanFran with my wife, I take a nice walk at night. One of the nicest views of city lights oddly enough was from the top of lombard Street.