The challenge in this shot was to get a nice blue in the sky to contrast the red of the sign. The time of day for this shot works perfectly to also align the drop shadows on the text.
The Hollywood sign is 9 miles from the location where I shot it. This is a good example of me “scouting” and planning my photographs. There are several challenges that need to be overcome in order to get this shot. First, although getting direct light down the “corridor” here may have been easier at noon, the sky appears the bluest when it is at a ninety degree angle to the azimuth. This means that at noon the sky would appear almost white. Also, colors would be washed out. Second, this very exclusive residential area (think old money), is actually surrounded by buildings taller than the palm trees on the left side. This means that shooting with the sun’s position at greater than 220° or so would cast enormous shadows. The compromise here was to allow shadows from the east instead. I opted for a morning shoot instead of my usual afternoon time.
