The late fall/autumn evenings announce the arrival of a sun that is lower in the sky and gives a warmer glow to your images. Late evening sunlight is often enhanced by a sprinkling of cloud in a crisp blue sky. I particularly like it for creating silhouettes, sunbursts and warm panoramic scenes.
The sunlight early in the morning is also a desirable commodity and gives wonderful lighting to your photographs. Late evening sunlight, like early morning sunlight, takes a different, longer journey through the atmosphere before reaching the subject of your photograph. The blue light tends to get dispersed on this longer journey leaving more red and oranges.
The Golden and Blue hours
As the quantity of blue light is reduced the Late evening sunlight has a more golden colour, and this gives rise to the popular term of the Golden Hour. The golden hour occurs shortly after the sun has risen and before the sun sets. As the sun sets and sinks below the horizon all those red and orange lights are fired over our heads and the light turns bluer as we head towards night. Likewise in eth morning, before the sun rises the light has a blue tinge to it. It isn’t difficult to understand why these periods are known as the blue hours. It’s worth noting that neither the blue, nor golden hours actually last rigorously an hour. Their duration depends on the time of year and where you find yourself on the planet.
Position of the sun
The lighting around dawn and dusk are determined by the position of the sun. During the golden hour the sun’s position is low. The late evening sunlight of the golden hour gives you :
- more reds and oranges
- longer shadows
- lower intensity light
- side or straight on lighting
The midday sun would be the opposite lighting. The sun gives
- bright whites and dark blacks
- short shadows
- bright bleached washed out colours
- top down lighting
So the golden hour is the prefer time for many photographers.
Morning and Evening
There are two golden hours each day. In summer, the closer you live to the poles, the earlier or later you have to be out taking photographs. That can be a considerable advantage of the winter golden hours for the late risers. Taking advantage of the both golden hours is not always required. Choose the best one for your subject. The sun won’t be totally opposite in the morning and evening golden hours but if the sun is the wrong side of your subject in the morning, there is a good chance in the late evening sunlight you will have the shot you are looking for.
As the day turns to night the photographs are transformed with the changing light. The last few minutes of the late evening sunlight give beautiful sunsets.
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