Escaping Golden Hour Jail in Landscape Photography
We’ve all heard all of the tropes about landscape photography and how “Golden hour is the best time to take photographs” and “Golden hour has the best light”, but sometimes we end up only shooting at these times and forgetting about all of the other opportunities we have to go out to make images.
In this blog, I am going to looks at some ideas to get you out of the habit of only shooting at this times.
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SO… for the uninitiated, golden hour is the hour after the sun has risen in the morning, and the hour before it sets in the evening. There’s also blue hour: The hour before the sun rises and the evening, the hour after it has set.
If you’re thinking of long, lingering summer sunsets, you’re thinking of golden hour. If you’re reminiscing about the times you have watched the sunrise, wherever you are in the world, you are thinking of golden hour.
Like I said at the start of this blog, we hear so much about how this is the best time to go and shoot, and yes, the light is often incredible; it’s warm, it’s soft and it has the ability to make even the most ordinary of scenes look beautiful. However, we also often forget that these aren’t the only times that we can go out with our cameras.
When we get into this habit of only shooting at these times, I say that we have ended up in “golden hour jail”. Whilst this isn’t a horrible place to be, it can be a restrictive place to be.
If you’re anything like me, and have a proper job during the day, this is going to mean that you are often driving to work during golden hour in the winter, and in the very depths of the coldest of the seasons, you’re sat behind your desk whilst the golden hour in the evening flies past your eyes.
I work right next to the coast, and as a landscape photographer, it can be gruelling having to sit and watch the sunset knowing that there is nothing you can do to go out and shoot it. Somedays, you finish work and it’s already dark! When the weekend rolls around, you often find that you are too tired to want to get up early again and then life happens.
Before you know it, the weekend is gone (always too quickly) and you’re back in the car seeing the sunrise around you during your commute, wishing you could make some photos and you still haven’t had the camera out in weeks because of everything I have just mentioned above.
So then, the answer to the big question, is how do we get out of this ‘golden hour jail’. What’s the thing we do that is like playing the landscape photography version of a get out of jail free card? Let’s take a look…
I think the first thing to remember, is that why there may be no such thing as bad photography conditions, there can be bad light. This is often when the light is flat and the skies are completely and featureless and whilst these kinds of days aren’t ideal, though they are all too common in The Lake District, that doesn’t mean that you can’t go out and take images in them.
It hasn’t, and didn’t impact many of the great photographers. You can still go out to shoot in these conditions. Yes, it can be harder to find the compositions you want, but for me, that’s part of the joy of this kind of photography - it pushes us out of our comfort zone; usually this is because we are used to nature doing massive chunk of the work for us!
I think that that one of the best ways to help yourself shoot outside of these times is to stay in bed for an extra hour in the morning, have that extra cup of coffee and maybe a bigger breakfast and let the sunrise pass you by, or go and watch it and don’t take the camera. Certainly for me and the way I work, if I go out to shoot sunset, I am there for blue hour, golden hour and then once the sun is fully up and the colours have faded, I am heading back to the car, and at this time of the year, I am turning on the heated seat and driving home for food an warm drinks!
By passing this time doing something else, you take it out of the equation. You don’t have nature to do so much of the heavy lifting and you need to look for other things.
Going out to shoot when the weather is less than ideal is a great way to break free as well. One of the most fun shoots I had this year was in some local woodland whist it was pouring with rain. Did I get wet? Absolutely, but me and my camera survived and I learned a lot about photography and about myself as a photographer in this couple of hours. I wrote a blog about going out to shoot in unfavourable conditions, you can read it here.
But this blog isn’t about going out in poor conditions, this is about going out in conditions that aren’t what we associate with being good for photography.
Bright/Direct Sunlight
Here in The Lake District, landscape photography takes in all kinds of light that isn’t in one of the golden hours. We have the full gamut of weather here; rain, more rain, lot of rain, bright sun, cloudy skies and in winter we get plenty of snow up on the fells. Sometimes, if you get really lucky, you will get all of those within about 20 minutes!
We often associate bright sunlight with being poor for landscape photography. The photo next to this paragraph (usually below the paragraph if you’re reading on your phone), was taken on Castle Crag (the smallest of the Wainwright fells and also my first!, shows just how strong sunlight can really make the colours in your image pop, and this image was taken on an iPhone with minimal edits.
Is this the greatest photo I have ever taken? No. it isn’t. But… look at the way some of those colours are lit up and how the light is really helping to pull the yellow colour out of the petals on the flower.
The other great thing about shooting in the bright sunlight is that it can produce some really strong shadows, especially if you’re out in the middle of the day.
These shadows will be crisp but harsh, but even so, they are really good framing an aspect of the landscape you are shooting. If you’re a street photographer, you can do the same thing - go and looks at Fa Ho’s work if you want to see more of what I am talking about here, but he was incredible at working with harsh light.
Rain
This is one that I love, as things look great when they have had dose of rain on them, especially if you’re out in woodland.
Rain has the ability to make everything look better, the colours pop, the textures stand out and you just end up with a great looking photo.
If you’re into macro photography and you’re in the right place then raindrops make great subjects, and if you can capture some reflections in them as well, then you could really be on to a winner.
Overcast Skies:
For some landscape photographers, overcast skies are the worst. Everything looks flat, the sun is all but snuffed out and the cloud, even the sky has little no interest in it; you begin to wonder why you even thought it would be a good idea to leave the house.
I suppose what I like about these kinds of conditions is that even though the light isn’t the most beautiful, it’s pretty consistent and you don’t need to worry too much about wild variations in exposure because the cloud isn’t changing much and it’s already blotted out the sun.
For me, these are ideal conditions for working on some detail shots, looking at the textures that are around you and working on some stuff that’s a bit more abstract that I might normally do. Intentional camera movement can be something which is fun if you haven’t tried it before, or even if you have!
On these days, especially when there isn’t as much light as I might like, I find that taking out a small RGB light can be really useful as I like to take some detail or macro shots. Having this with me gives some more flexibility with my shutter speed, but can also be useful if I want to get creative with some lighting! I like this one from SmallRig.
My Top Tips for Getting out of Golden Hour Jail
Wait for the sunrise to happen and then leave to go on your shoot, enjoy that extra hour in bed in the morning. This takes the pressure off and stops you from going home once the sunrise has finished its display. Flip this evening and wait for blue hour, or even darkness!
Work on different “types” of photography - try some abstracts, try some macro, a bit of astro and maybe even some intentional camera movement.
Have a plan in mind and stick to it.
Look at your feet. The ground so often gets overlooked; I’m not talking starting a project cover footpaths, I’m talking about spotting the stuff that you’re not normally looking for - just make sure you stay aware of your surroundings.
Don’t rule anything out, you never know what you might see when you get it in post.
Try shooting in black and white, especially if you’re out in the day and have some shadows to play with. Black and white loves contrast, and you'll get that in abundance if you get out on the right day.
Be brave… look for things you wouldn’t usually consider - you never know, you might surprise yourself.
Go out, be brave and shoot in outside out of the times that we all cling so dearly to! There’s an awesome world out there, and sometimes, I don’t think that we as much of it as we could, because we often shoot and then walk away when the golden light is gone.
And hey, if none of this is your thing, have you heard about golden hour? It’s supposed to be a great time to take photos…