52 Frames: Week 36: Golden Hour!

52 Frames, Captures from Finland

Warmth, Tranquility, Contentment… just a few things I tend to feel when I’m watching a low Sun 🌅. I hope you do too, this week during Golden Hour – soft, golden light that happens twice each day. Golden Hour, or “Magic Hour”, is usually considered to be the first “hour” after sunrise and the last “hour” before sunset. 

Golden Hour is when light is diffused and soft and the shadows are long and less harsh than during the day.. Golden Hour offers pretty directional light, so your composition needs to account for the angle and direction of the sun. You could use light flares as a creative choice and shoot into the light or use the shadows to add more depth and dimension to your scene.

Remember, the length of golden hour will vary with where you are on the planet and the time of year.

I seem to leave this always to the last moment. Golden hour, Saturday evening I had an epiphany, I have not taken this shot. Sunset. where I live , was at 8PM, I left the house at 7:30 seaching for a place where I could capture the golden hour. I did not head west, as I was not trying to capture sunset. East that is the direction I drove to. I had half an hour to get the shot. These are some that I considered for the challenge.

warmth of the golden hour

TIPS:

  • Stability: Use a tripod for longer exposures – you would need a stable platform for the camera to avoid shake
  • Get creative: Consider using the lighting in a variety of ways – as fill light or as rim lighting to highlight a subject. (the sun BEHIND the subject)
  • Plan ahead: Be mindful of the time – good light can disappear just as quickly as it can reveal a new facet of the scene.
  • Color Tone: White balance is quite important – whether you’re shooting RAW and then post-processing or editing JPGs straight from your camera.
Golden hour by the sea