There are really two specifications I would be concerned with in your situation:

• The most important is a large sensor since that determines performance in low-light. So get the largest sensor you can afford. There are now plenty of 1" CMOS sensors which deliver a really good compromise between traditional compact and a DSLR. You could probably go one step further with a low-end Micro Four-Thirds mirrorless which will also add flexibility.
• Manual controls is what you need in order to be creative and experiment, specially to capture play of light as you say. The good news is that all current cameras with 1" CMOS sensors and current mirrorless can do it. They just vary in speed and control efficiency but that will have little impact to what you are asking. Dual control-dials would be nice but that raises the price some more.

One third thing which really makes a difference for photography is a viewfinder. It would be optical for a DSLR but many cameras have really good EVFs now. Although the smaller ones tend to have smaller EVFs which are harder to see.

There are really two specifications to be concerned with in your situation:

• The most important is a large sensor since that determines performance in low-light. So get the largest sensor you can afford. There are now plenty of 1" CMOS sensors which deliver a really good compromise between traditional compact and a DSLR. You could probably go one step further with a low-end Micro Four-Thirds mirrorless which will also add flexibility.
• Manual controls is what you need in order to be creative and experiment, specially to capture play of light as you say. The good news is that all current cameras with 1" CMOS sensors and current mirrorless can do it. They just vary in speed and control efficiency but that will have little impact to what you are asking. Dual control-dials would be nice but that raises the price some more.

One third thing which really makes a difference for photography is a viewfinder. It would be optical for a DSLR but many cameras have really good EVFs now. Although the smaller ones tend to have smaller EVFs which are harder to see.

There are a few options that should fall within your budget. One for example is the Panasonic GM5 which comes to $499 with a lens even and has a small built-in EVF. One of the Sony RX100 family could do too.