Golden Hour Questions

In article , Greg Guarino
wrote:

> Sunrise 5:20AM
> Sunset: 6:43PM
>
> ...when should I plan to take my pictures? I'm aware that the

My experience has been that the 'golden' hour is when the sun is just
over the horizon and shining on your subject. It's either coming up and
will lose the gold in minutes (well, maybe an hour) or it's going down
and will lose the gold in minutes. It's always faster than I expect.

As the other poster said, get there before dawn or before sunset, pick
your subjects and start shooting. I used to use slide film, and the
gold in the slides was much more evident than in real life. I don't
know what the effect will be in digital, since digital cameras may make
adjustments to maintain white balance.

If I recall correctly, the golden hour refers to the time when daylight
balanced film gets out of balance and shows warm golden hues in
everything - sort of like shooting daylight film in incandescent
lighting. If your camera adjusts white balance automagically, there may
be no golden hour.

--
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On Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:56:30 -0700, Phil Stripling
wrote:

>In article , Greg Guarino
> wrote:
>
>> Sunrise 5:20AM
>> Sunset: 6:43PM
>>
>> ...when should I plan to take my pictures? I'm aware that the
>
>My experience has been that the 'golden' hour is when the sun is just
>over the horizon and shining on your subject. It's either coming up and
>will lose the gold in minutes (well, maybe an hour) or it's going down
>and will lose the gold in minutes. It's always faster than I expect.

That's what I've heard too, but I've never made a deliberate attempt
to catch it.

>As the other poster said, get there before dawn or before sunset, pick
>your subjects and start shooting. I used to use slide film, and the
>gold in the slides was much more evident than in real life. I don't
>know what the effect will be in digital, since digital cameras may make
>adjustments to maintain white balance.


>If I recall correctly, the golden hour refers to the time when daylight
>balanced film gets out of balance and shows warm golden hues in
>everything - sort of like shooting daylight film in incandescent
>lighting. If your camera adjusts white balance automagically, there may
>be no golden hour.


That's a good tip. I'll try using some fixed white balance. Daylight,
perhaps.

Greg Guarino
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Greg Guarino wrote in


> Up to now I've mostly taken travel photos at whatever time I happened
> to be at a particular location. But I'll be going back to a place I
> have been to several times before and will feel less pressure to "see
> everything". I'm hoping to back to some scenic spots I know at
> advantageous times, light-wise. So if I see the following:
>
> Monday, August 27, 2007
> Sunrise 5:20AM
> Sunset: 6:43PM
>
> ...when should I plan to take my pictures? I'm aware that the
> conditions I'm looking for won't happen every day, or in the same way.
> I'm just looking for rules of thumb. On a good day, how long could I
> expect the "good light" to last? Any other tips?
>
> Greg Guarino

Greg: you might want to learn about "civil twilight". In my experience,
getting there an hour before 'rise or 'set affords time to set up
unhurredly. If I am trying to capture the colors of the sky, I usually
shoot film - even my good Canon DSLR doesn't quite do justice to twilight.
One exposure every ten to fifteen seconds from the moment you love the
light is usually enough to capture something magic. This link will help
with your schedule:

> http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html

HTH, Ray
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Greg Guarino wrote:
>
> ...when should I plan to take my pictures?

The "Golden Hour" is only for people who shoot slide film.
It produces underexposed pictures with "mood", the main reason
why people fall asleep at traditional slide shows.

If you have good print film with wide latitude, or a
modern digital camera, you can take pictures any time!
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"Bill Tuthill" wrote in message

> Greg Guarino wrote:
>>
>> ...when should I plan to take my pictures?
>
> The "Golden Hour" is only for people who shoot slide film.
> It produces underexposed pictures with "mood", the main reason
> why people fall asleep at traditional slide shows.
>
> If you have good print film with wide latitude, or a
> modern digital camera, you can take pictures any time!
>
Generally true but there is one exception. Scenics with tall vertical lines
will be much more "well defined" when the light is from a low angle. So for
example a mountain or butte with very vretical cliffs and deep gouges, if
the light is coming from a low angle and at roughly 90 deg left or right of
the view direction, the gouges or ridges will be shadowed, giving more
definition to the scene. But the same view at noon will have the light fully
illuminating the gouges and the surface will seem more "smooth".

Also just at the time that the sun is rising or setting over the horizon,
the light is bouncing from the sun off the atmosphere and thus may be a bit
more soft. So just prior to sun up you may get a more soft light quality.
But if you wait just a few min later, when the sun is peeking over the
horizon, you get more direct light which will give a whole new feel to the
same subject.

So, while the golden hour light coloring is not so big an issue with
digital, the direction of the light represented by a just pre-sunrise to
just post-sunrise (or the same around sunset) may enhance some subjects.

Randy

==========
Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL
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Randy Berbaum wrote:
> "Bill Tuthill" wrote in message
>
>> Greg Guarino wrote:
>>> ...when should I plan to take my pictures?
>> The "Golden Hour" is only for people who shoot slide film.
>> It produces underexposed pictures with "mood", the main reason
>> why people fall asleep at traditional slide shows.
>>
>> If you have good print film with wide latitude, or a
>> modern digital camera, you can take pictures any time!
>>
> Generally true but there is one exception. Scenics with tall vertical lines
> will be much more "well defined" when the light is from a low angle. So for
> example a mountain or butte with very vretical cliffs and deep gouges, if
> the light is coming from a low angle and at roughly 90 deg left or right of
> the view direction, the gouges or ridges will be shadowed, giving more
> definition to the scene. But the same view at noon will have the light fully
> illuminating the gouges and the surface will seem more "smooth".
>
> Also just at the time that the sun is rising or setting over the horizon,
> the light is bouncing from the sun off the atmosphere and thus may be a bit
> more soft. So just prior to sun up you may get a more soft light quality.
> But if you wait just a few min later, when the sun is peeking over the
> horizon, you get more direct light which will give a whole new feel to the
> same subject.
>
> So, while the golden hour light coloring is not so big an issue with
> digital, the direction of the light represented by a just pre-sunrise to
> just post-sunrise (or the same around sunset) may enhance some subjects.

I really disagree with both these posters. Lighting is
critical to an image irregardless of the medium. Just because
you can "fiddle" with white balance with digital does not
mean light is less important (you could fiddle with it
with film too using filters).

But having said that, best light is not always at sunrise/sunset
near the "golden hour."

Image of great blue herons kissing within about a minute
of sunset:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.bird/web/great.blue.heron...he.kiss

But thus image, also of herons was taken about 10am, when the
light was high and harsh. No change in color balance
would improve it:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.bird/web/great.blue.heron...ther.c0

But this image was taken about 2 in the afternoon, when the
light was very good due to diffuse lighting from a cloud:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.large_format/web/c072099_...01a2-60

This image was done around 11 am and light is great:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.large_format/web/indian_p...s_wilde

and this was done before sunrise:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.africa/web/vulture.in.fog...1.20.20

While I find lighting generally best when the sun is low
(and animals more active), one can find great imaging opportunities
all day). You just need to adapt to conditions.
While "you can take pictures anytime," it doesn't mean the
light right to make a good image.

Roger
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I agree with Roger, there is no "best" time.
I started taking pictures many years ago with black and white film. It
was all I could afford.
That was more than sixty years ago. Since then I've learned to look for
subject matter frist, then angle and lighting. Photography is done
mostly between the ears, anyway. When you learn all you can about the
technology of photography, it has to be added to all you can learn about
what makes a good picture.
It is true that some very nice photos are taken with strong cross
lighting, such as the condition found early and late in the day, but my
very best portraits were taken in subdued, very diffuse light.
Color is not only easily manipulated, it is also highly subjective.
What one sees as pleasant will not be so for someone else.
What you need, more than anything else is experience, study and
perseverance. Digital cameras permit us to take as many photos as we
want and then we can easily discard the stuff that's no good. Take them
by the hundreds under all conditions.
Go to the library and study good books on photography. There are as
many styles as there are photographers. Study them as carefully as you
can, looking for composition, contrast, focus (or it's lack), color
distribution and contrast as well as general color characteristics.
The camera is a mere tool. You must make it do your bidding.

Don
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On Thu, 21 Apr 2011 09:28:40 -0500, Don Butler
wrote:

>Go to the library and study good books on photography.

Good advice if all that you want to do is end up writing books on
photography one day. That's what happened to those photographers too. The
only place fit to publish their photos were in their own how-to books, as
mediocre examples for demonstration purposes only.

I have a collection of photography books that I downloaded from an e-book
source. Some in print were very expensive at one time, very popular.

Before backing them up to my ebook DVDs I renamed all their filenames to
"(book-title)_no_wonder_all_he_can_do_is_write_books_-_this_is_CRAP_advice.pdf"

Just in case someone inherits my ebook collection one day and stumbles on
those pdf files, lest they make the same pitiful mistakes those authors
made in their own books. And are being made by all who have read their
books.

"If I had read as many books as other men, I should have been as ignorant
as they are." - Thomas Hobbes
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Don Butler wrote:
>
>Go to the library and study good books on photography. There are as
>many styles as there are photographers. Study them as carefully as you
>can, looking for composition, contrast, focus (or it's lack), color
>distribution and contrast as well as general color characteristics.
>The camera is a mere tool. You must make it do your bidding.


Good advice, but that's too much like hard work.

Most camera owners prefer to "solve" their picture-taking problems by
buying a more expensive camera and/or lens(es). The only effort
involved is waving their credit card.
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On Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:01:25 +0100, Bruce
wrote:

>Don Butler wrote:
>>
>>Go to the library and study good books on photography. There are as
>>many styles as there are photographers. Study them as carefully as you
>>can, looking for composition, contrast, focus (or it's lack), color
>>distribution and contrast as well as general color characteristics.
>>The camera is a mere tool. You must make it do your bidding.
>
>
>Good advice, but that's too much like hard work.
>
>Most camera owners prefer to "solve" their picture-taking problems by
>buying a more expensive camera and/or lens(es). The only effort
>involved is waving their credit card.

That's my approach to improving my golf game. My swing is terrible,
but I solve it by buying new clubs. It hasn't worked yet, but I've
only been doing it for forty-some years. It may take some time.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida
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