Golden Hour.

I love landscape photography. It’s my passion. Usually, I take most of my pictures in the afternoon, because the light is nicer then. But the best, most beautiful light comes during Golden Hour. I love Golden Hour.

For any of you not knowing what I’m talking about: Golden Hour is the the last hour before sunset, when the sun is already quite low in the sky but not yet gone. The light is nice and smooth and orange and it just looks gorgeous. The half hour before sunrise is also known as golden hour.

Off course you need to know when Golden Hour is to capture that nice, beautiful light. Using your smartphones standard weather app can help, but I use a dedicated photography app that not only shows me when Golden Hour is, but also where the sun will be at that time. There’s no use in Golden Hour if the light comes from the wrong side. I use PhotoPills*, but there are other apps as well. I just never found the need to use one of those.

Usually, a graduated ND filter might be a good idea, as the sky around Golden Hour is usually way brighter than the scenery, but I don’t own such a filter and usually add those in Lightroom with varying success. It works most of the time, but it’s easy to overdo and make the sky look muddy. And that’s definetly not beautiful.

Another beautiful time for photography is Blue Hour, just before the morning and just after the evening Golden hour. During that time, the skyes have the most awesome blue colour. Blue Hour is also the time when you a tripod becomes more or less neccessary though, as it becomes darker and darker over time.

As beautiful as Golden and Blue Hours are, I don’t go out shooting during those times as often as I do during standard aftnernoon hours. The blue sky of Blue Hour is usually a bit to blue for my taste, and Golden Hour can become overpowering on that Insta grid after a while, so I try to keep somewhat of a balance between all those lighting conditions.

What do you think of Golden/ Blue Hour? Do you love them? Do you hate them? Leave a comment down below.

*PhotoPills is a paid app that I don’t have affiliation with. Find out more on their website.