Photographers should be able to shoot in a variety of conditions. However, a photoshoot's preparation is highly advisable, considering that there are times in the day that the image becomes highly rich in saturated colours. These times are referred to as golden hours, which is the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset. The daylight during the golden hour is redder and softer.

Me and model Lucy Lofting managed to create incredible sunset golden hour images that looked amazing. It was my first golden hour photoshoot, and as usual, I faced multiple challenges. But the main obstacle was the dynamic range.

• When correctly exposing the subject, you can risk losing all the highlight details (i.e., burn the image). I love this look because it creates a high contrast between your subject and the background. It adds a significant separation and depth to your image.

• When correctly exposing the magnificent saturated sky, your subject will be in silhouette.

You have multiple approaches to tackle these obstacles.

• The first solution is shooting the subject underexposed. This way, the background details are easily obtainable using Camera Raw, which I did during this shoot as in this image.






• The second approach uses a speedlight or a strobe. By correctly exposing the sky and lighting your subject with a speedlight, you can get fantastic results. A better solution is using a high sync speed or neutral density filter, which I will explain in a later article.

Enjoy the Golden Hour

Have you noticed anything from the photos? In all the images I shot, I was using the sun as a hair and rim light. It's giving the hair a striking colour. It just looks magical.

The Gear I Used

I hope you learned a lot from this blog. If you are interested in a one-on-one training session, drop me a direct message on my Instagram account.