Sunrise and sunset are my absolute favorite time to go out and shoot. The colors, the reflections on water, and the way light filters through trees are captivating. You can capture these moments in all their glory with these helpful golden hour photo tips.
What is the Golden Hour?
Golden hour is the time of day that the sun produces a certain kind of light with warm and vibrant colors. This is either during sunrise or sunset. More specifically, the best light is when the sun is between 6 degrees above to 4 degrees below the horizon.
With a shallow angle, the light travels a longer distance through all the dust and gasses in the atmosphere before hitting the Earth’s surface. That is why golden hour usually displays warm and diffused colors.
This period usually lasts from anywhere between 20 to 30 minutes early in the morning or in the evening.
With such a short time to capture the right image with the perfect colors, how should you prepare for these shoots?
Plan Ahead of Time for Your Shot
Golden hour is the perfect time to shoot outdoors, whether it is for a portrait, cityscape or landscape. Sometimes you can be lucky and catch a great sunset on the spot. However, you should prepare beforehand so getting that shot will be easier.
Since golden hour is short, planning and arriving prepared for your sunrise or sunset photo shoot is crucial.
Be sure to arrive at your location no later than 30 minutes before sunrise or sunset (If you are shooting at a popular location, arrive much earlier. Trust me, there will always be a good chance that you are not going to be the only one there).
Also, make sure to scout your location and plan what you will be shooting beforehand. You also want to understand how you are going to compose your scene, from what angles you will shoot and what kinds of lens and filter you will need.
If you can’t visit the location beforehand, scouting can be done with Google maps street view. Just simply put the location in Google maps and drag the pin onto the location.
Use a Tripod for Your Shot
Shooting during golden hour can be tough to do handheld. The light will not be strong enough, so your shutter speed needs to slow down and if it is too bright the resulting photos may have some motion blur because of camera shake.
A tripod is highly recommended to provide camera stability while shooting in low light situations.
Take as Many Shots as Possible
Make sure you have as much space on your SD card as possible or bring an extra card. You are NOT going to get the perfect photo in one shot.
To increase your odds of getting that beautiful shot, take as many shots as possible. Since golden hour does not last very long the colors will change. So, to get all the best colors, you want to keep shooting.
Also, don’t forget to bring the spare battery and SD card!
Bring a Polarizing Filter
A polarizer is a circular filter that screws onto the front part of your lens.
Using a polarizer will help to bring more details as well as enhance the vibrance of colors, especially the blues and warm colors. They also help with reducing distracting glare that can pose a problem during this time, especially near water or windows.
Pay Attention to Your Camera Settings
When setting up for the shot, make sure you are in Manual mode. This will give you greater control over the settings.
For golden hour, the emphasis is usually on the sky and not necessarily the foreground. Your exposure should be set for the highlights.
This means that you want to find the right exposure that will not blow out the sky, but rather capture the warm colors.
Use a low ISO (between 50 and 200) and a shutter speed of around 1/80 to 1 second. This will usually underexpose the details in the foreground but will capture the beautiful colors in the sky.
You also want to use an aperture that is not too shallow or too narrow. The sweet spot for golden hour aperture level is between f/8 to f/11. A f-stop in this range will soften the light and colors in your scene.
However, you may need to change the settings a bit later in the golden hour, or when the sun has completely set beyond the horizon.
Keep your ISO low, but slightly increase your shutter speed to about 2 seconds or more. This is the best way to avoid noise.
If you want to capture the foreground in your scene, you can take more shots with a higher exposure to bring out foreground details and merge them together in photoshop.
In terms of white balance, you can always adjust it later in post-processing (if you are shooting in RAW of course). But, if you want to get the most out of the warm colors, try using the ‘shade’ or ‘cloudy’ white balance for the shot.
Use a Graduated ND Filter
When you are shooting at sunrise or sunset, it’s important to use a graduated ND filter. This square piece of glass has a gradual transition of intensity; from dark to clear.
Graduated ND filters allow for an even exposure throughout the entire image rather than having one half of the shot in complete darkness due to over-exposure from sunlight while other parts of this same picture would be overexposed.
This piece of glass will help your photos appear more balanced with colors and highlights.
Shoot With a Wide-angle Lens or a Telephoto Lens
A wide-angle lens is helpful with capturing shadows, while a zoom lens can be used to zoom in on a specific subject or to include a large sun in the background of your shot. Most of the time when I am shooting at golden hour I will use either my IRIX 15mm lens or my Tamron70-200mm.
Use Technology in Your Planning
You can benefit from the use of weather websites or smartphone apps to not only check for weather conditions in your planned location, but also for sunrise and sunset times.
There are two apps that will be very handy.
The first app is called PHOTOPILLS. This is the app that I use. It really has quite a lot to offer. You can check golden hour times, get info on locations, calculate exposures for golden hour and night shots, and calculate focal length and depth of field for your shots.
The second recommendation is PHOTOGRAPHER’S EPHEMERIS. This will provide not only the sunrise and sunset times but also the position of the sun during golden hour and the direction of light, which will be useful to planning your composition for your shot.
Both apps are paid apps, but highly worth it.
Potential Pitfalls When Shooting During Golden Hour
There are a couple of issues to look out for when planning your shot.
Lens flare: Lens flare is caused by bright light hitting the lens. This is an obstacle that can occur during golden hour and night shots near streetlights.
Lens flare can produce distracting artifacts in your image. Bring a lens hood to reduce the chances of this ruing your shot.
Distracting shadows: If you are shooting with front lighting (the sunlight shining behind you), there is the potential for creating unwanted shadows in the foreground, such as your tripod or bystanders.
Pay attention to your shadows; change your angle if they appear in the foreground.
Conclusion
The golden hour is the best time to get that stunning image that inspires and captivates the viewer. Make sure you are ready to capture the beauty of a sunrise or sunset the next time you are out there.