Golden Hour - give your images a Magical Glow
Have you ever heard of ‘golden hour’? I googled it so I could give you the dictionary definition, but this came up:
GOLDEN HOUR
noun MEDICINE
the first hour after a traumatic injury, when emergency treatment is most likely to be successful.
Yikes. This is not what I’m talking about!
Golden hour for photographers happens twice a day:
its the first hour of light after sunrise
and the last hour of light before sunset
In technical sun movement terms, it’s when the sun is between six degrees below the horizon and six degrees above. You know it’s golden hour by the abundance of warm natural light that casts a beautiful glow over everything.
In photographic terms, warm, natural light is just THE BEST. Learning to make the most of golden hour is something every photographer tries to do.
Whether its portraits on your DSLR, landscapes or selfies on your iPhone, golden hour is the best time of day to shoot.
The following Bondi Daily shots were all taken at Golden Hour when the suns rays come in at an angle, diffusing the light, and the beach and the ocean are washed with a warm glow.
TEQUILA SUNRISE
Tequila Sunrise (above) - this shot was taken on a beautiful morning at 6:04am. Soft light was shining across the ocean and on to the iconic Bondi Icebergs pool. It gave the pool a pink glow, and I thought it was pretty much the sexiest Icebergs has ever looked. Sexy image, sexy name.
GOLDEN GLOW
The power of golden hour has been used to full advantage here! Soft light falls across the ocean and the beach in this image, taken at 6:32am at Bronte Beach. There was nothing else to call this image except ‘Golden Glow’ ~~ it’s a love-letter to golden hour! The meeting of surfers down on the shoreline was a bonus. Their bodies and boards make the perfect silhouettes against the shimmering ocean.
TRUE COLOURS
I wanted to show you an example of the beautiful light at the other time of day - golden hour at work in the evening. This image was taken at Bondi Beach during the last hour of sun-up - you can see people starting to pack up after a summers day at the beach. incredibly this was at 6:18pm on a weekend… bondi faces east so the light is best in the morning, but i love the hazy effect of the rays on the beachgoers in this image, close to sunset