You may have heard about golden hour photography, but what is it? Ask most keen photographers what time of day produces the best light for a photograph and you’ll almost always get the same answer – golden hour!I'm an early bird so just after sunrise is when I have taken most of these images.The air is clean and fresh and the world is just waking up.We in New Zealand have great golden hours because of our position way down here!
Dog waiting for his owner to come back from a surf at Bethell's beach Auckland. You can just see the owner on the rocks on the far left.
Golden hour is the short window of time right after sunrise and again right before sunset, when the air is filled with a flattering golden hue that’s perfect for photographing everything from landscapes to portraits. A general rule of thumb is that golden hour is about an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset.
Rising sun reflecting on the black sand beach at Te Henga beach Auckland.
The sun is low in the sky during these hours and more diffuse (and redder) than normal thanks to having to be filtered for a greater distance through the atmosphere. At golden hour, you won’t get the kind of harsh shadows you see at high noon.
Downtown Auckland early morning.
Since the sun is so low on the horizon, the light is directional, creating long, and soft shadows giving dimension to your photographs. You can use that soft dimensional light to achieve creative effects that aren’t possible at any other time of day.
You can shoot into the rising sun to create a flare effect as with this image of an early morning surfer.Silhouettes ,back lighting,rim and front lighting using the sun while it is low in the sky are all tools at this time of day that bring lovely results.
A good starting point is to set your camera to “shade” or “cloudy” rather than Automatic White Balance to get those gorgeous golden hues that the camera will try to blue down under Auto.
Scenes from the Auckland waterfront at just after sunrise.
Sometimes unusual cloud formations are highlighted by the diffused sunlight to amazing effect.
Sunset can be dramatic as well.
Finally a couple of soft light images as the sun goes down in my neighbourhood.
thanks for exploring this Golden Hour with me!