Photo TIPS! ~ "The Golden Hours"

First I would like to start off by welcoming the first ever follower of RPB (Ravimi Photography Blog) "TheLittlePictureBox"! Yay (fireworks in the background, while drunk people fall over from the after after after party). Thanks for joining me on the journey through photography!

Now back to the normally scheduled program. Today I would like to discuss "The Golden Hours" which I referred to in the last "Photo and Personal Style" post. The Golden Hours refers to a time of day in which photographers in the photography community (I know, redundant) generally have dubbed "The best time of the day for taking pictures". The reason for the nice title is because it's a time when the sun gives off it's most vibrant light. This time is from when the sun rises to about 9-10am, and when the sun is setting, mostly the period after 5pm (lol, sorry Alaska), to when it is completely gone. I'm sure a lot of you, if not all, have seen a picture of the sunset/sunrise, it contains vibrant colors that shine beautifully which is one of the reasons it is so greatly praised.

This is one of my Sunset pictures, taken on Christmas day.

During "The Golden Hours" the sun light can be strong but it is coming from an angled direction that is not directly above. Sunlight during the middle of the day, in most cases, is very harsh and may cause pictures to look bleached out (over exposed) even when the settings have been adjusted. The reason for this is because shadows created by the harsh light creates too much of a contrast which will make skin exposed to the light look "washed out" relative to the darkness of the skin that is covered by shadows. I would describe this effect similar to that of a camera trying to take video of a dark subject while there is a light reflector surrounding the subject and is pointing directly at the lens. Midday light comes directly from above which is not always forgiving towards the person being photographed. The example picture of the foot prints below (Image is called "Bajo Relieve") shows how shadows from the Golden hours can be used, and how midday sun can actually destroy interesting shadows.

The light of "The Golden Hours" comes from a lower angle and this allows the photographer to dictate where the model will stand for the best exposure. The less-harsh light seems to wrap around the subject because there is very little contrast between the actual direct sunlight and fill light (light that is reflected from surfaces or comes from other mediums with the purpose of lowering the amount of contrast created by the main source of light: in other words I'll leave it for a later tutorial). An example of this is the portrait below.

So be sure to use "The Golden Hours" as a very important tool. It serves as a great time of day when the sun creates favorable and colorful light, and is also the coolest part of the day (excluding night of course).


If you have any questions about my pictures or photography over all send me a message or comment below (comments are preferred since they may serve the purpose of answering the question for everyone with similar questions.) and remember SUBSCRIBE!
Keep Snappin',
ravimi

I took this in the afternoon when the sun was setting.
If I would have taken this during the middle of the day
the shadows that help create the feeling of the feet popping
out would not have been possible. 

As described above, the afternoon light from
"The Golden Hours" (so holy)
contains light that is not to strong and allows
the rest of the subjects face enough light
that the contrast wont be too noticeable.