How to photograph during the Golden Hour
The Golden hour, also known as the magic hour is the time right after sunset right before you see complete darkness. The sky turns into a mix of red and dark blue which is absolutely magical. However this magic hour is very short you need to be prepared with your equipment and the location picked out beforehand.
Basic Set-up
Having a tripod is important but not a must. However, you might end up with a shaky image as you have less light coming in. You want to have the best possible outcome, have a tripod set up. If not, you can prevent shakes by putting your camera on your bag or a rock.
Camera Setting
At this hour, you want to capture in your image as much landscape or the sunset as possible. With that being said, you want the focus to be spread even on the image. Set your F stop around 10 or even higher to let enough light to come in but also show as much as possible at the same time.
Here's an advanced tip. Many of you may use this already and I don't think many of you properly use this mode. It's called white balance. Most people shoot their photos with Auto white balance but during the golden hour your image will have more magical look at a colder temperature. Meaning, you want to set your white balance and Kelving mode or, "K" mode and choose a number between 2500 and 3000. We will talk more about the Kelvin mode in detail but for not just keep in mind that anything below 5000 will generally give you colder blue look. AWB (auto-white balance) is not wrong but just give it a try with the Kelvin mode set around 2500 and 3000 and feel the difference.
Find the Spot
Make sure you are there before the golden hour and choose the best spot and think of the composition of your image and take some practice shots. Remember, this magic hour is very short, so you need to make it count.
As you can see from the photo above, you see the sun is setting on the right side and magic hour last longer on this side. Start away from the sun first so this way you will get to enjoy the golden hour longer.
This golden hour has both cold and warm feeling and to capture this mixed feeling, go somewhere you can see the horizon.
*We have a full beginner photography master class that we're partnered with here. Please take a look if you seriously want to up your photography game.
I've went over few beginner tips to up your photography game. If you've missed them make sure you check them out.
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