Choose your time
Be ready to shoot when the ideal lighting appears and learn how to deal with the expected challenges
All the best rewards demand the greatest work to access them, and the perfect goldenhour images are no exception. If you go into a shoot with a creative mindset, there is the opportunity to capture something truly unique and memorable – the type of image that you find yourself revisiting time and again. However, before you are able to reach this stage, you must first learn to circumvent the cardinal difficulties posed by working with low sun. Sunrises and sunsets are especially challenging conditions, because not only is the photographer working with the most directional and colourful light of the day, each stage is highly transient. Potential images materialise and dissolve within seconds, so often more shots are missed than are successfully captured. Furthermore, the intensity and angle of the sunlight highlights any imperfections in both equipment and the photographer’s technique. Even the most expensive glass will display a degree of internal reflections, especially at small aperture settings, while the high-contrast backlighting will often cause misfocusing and incorrect exposures. Good preparation can be the key to securing the images you envision.
Becoming familiar with the location enables you to identify the best spots from which to shoot each stage of the dawn or dusk. “It is important to scout the area in daylight, to know what to look for when arriving in twilight,” advises Christian Hering. It is also important to do this close to the day of your shoot, so you are confident that the environment won’t have changed when you return. Arriving early for your shoot is essential. “I usually show up 1.5 hours before sunrise or 45 minutes before sunset,” says Christian. “Finding a composition on a new spot requires time – once the sky starts to light up, you don’t want to get caught scrambling for a composition.” It is good practice to ‘shoot through’ each stage of the golden hour, capturing shots either side of the event to compensate for individual differences between locations. This will allow you to capture the unique lighting properties of each site.