Get creative with composition
Consider the effects of framing on the atmosphere of your images and try out different approaches
When faced with rapidly changing light, the temptation is to focus all of your energy on capturing the interplay of highlights, shadows and colour, before conditions shift. Amongst beginners, this can lead to a lack of consideration of framing, yielding unbalanced images. Regardless of the quality of light, it is of great importance that the main elements of the scene are arranged according to the standard rules of photographic composition. From this point, the photographer is then free to experiment with subject placement, to make the most of the advantages the golden hours provide. A key error is to think of the sunrise or sunset as the main reason for taking a photograph – many inexperienced shooters will simply place the low-angled sun in the centre of the frame or zoom in for a frame-filling view, producing a shot with little interest. Furthermore, due to the intensity of the directional lighting, if the sun is not correctly placed within the composition, it can become a distraction which swamps other scene elements. A further consideration is the alignment of light and shadow across the image – while raking light brings out detail and shapes subjects, if misplaced, these strong areas of light and dark can create uncomfortable angular dissonance. The most effective solution is to find a subject and craft a composition, prior to revisiting the location for a golden hours shoot. Once you are set up to make your final images, compose so that the brightness of the low sun serves to direct the viewer’s eye to the focal point of the frame. Human vision is always drawn to the brightest part of a scene, so we can use the high contrast of the golden hours to our advantage. Ideas for creative compositions are wide ranging. Start by altering your position relative to the subject, to see how the shifted light direction affects its form. Try honing in on smaller details of the scene by altering focal length and angle relative to the sun. By experimenting with new perspectives, you form a baseline for compositions that use golden light as an augmenting feature.
Top right
SUN PLACEMENT
Be mindful of where you place the sun when it actually features in the frame. Placing it on a third or along a perspective line gives it compositional value
Middle right
USE THE HORIZON
Be experimental with where you place the horizon line. Arrange it in a lower third to encourage focus on sky features, in this case the colour transition from yellow to purple