How to Shoot during Sunsets and the Golden Hour
As a photographer, I need to talk about the best time to shoot during the day: how to shoot during sunsets and the Golden Hour.
It is no surprise for me to talk about shooting but this time I need to take you with me during one of my favourite moments of the day: sunsets! Shooting during sunsets, using the golden hour at its best can be tricky at times, but you will achieve amazing photos without editing them so much!
Like I said in a previous blog post, sometimes over-editing can be a problem, that’s why if we already start with high-quality images, it’s less work and more satisfaction.
What is the golden hour exactly?
The golden hour is that time before and during sunsets. When the sun is setting down, the sunbeams become softer with a warm golden touch to it. Images and shadows are warmer.
Now, this is one of the favourite time in the day for a photographer! The natural lighting is soft and warm: a dream!
So how to prepare for this?
How to Shoot during Sunsets and the Golden Hour
First of all plan the shooting: it is going to take around two hours to shoot at least 1-2 outfits, so remember this. Then search for the perfect location around you.
Like you know, I am a country girl and I adore using natural landscapes in my images so I wander around the fields in my area which during summertime are very inspirational.
Look for a place and check where the sun goes down to see if you have the background you want.
The Perfect Pictures during Sunsets
Now I love to take two types of pictures during sunset hours: the ones with the sun right behind me (so the photographer is facing the sun) and vice-versa, images where the sun is facing me.
The first one are the trickiest because the risk is to overexpose the images because of the sun straight into the picture. What you can do is having the sun behind the model so to get just the echo of the light around the figure.
Instead when you are photographing the model and the sun is behind you and the camera, you will notice how the light is soft and warm. The colours naturally tend to orange colours. If you don’t like them, you can manually change the Kelvin in your camera setting in order to save the images bluer.
Or you can wait when the sun has set, to get the best of the blue hour but in this case, I would suggest experimenting with the flash to have a sort of L.A. kind of vibes.
The Poses for Sunset Hours
You are very free to be yourself: I like to be playful in most of my poses. I play with my props (sunglasses, hat, nature around me) or I do silly positions like trying to have the sun in my hands.
It’s funny and in the end you can post-edit these images like you prefer.
Post-Editing Sunset Pictures
My favourite part is trying to add a little vintage look, you know I adore film photography, so I always add some grain to my pictures and I increase a little the warmth of them all.
When in the countryside I like to express these warm colours at their best, usually I also tend to dress in a way that is not very different from my background.
If I would have worn a deep bright red bodysuit might have been a problem because I already know what type of editing I will do.
Overall my greatest suggestion is to play, take pictures with the sun behind you and in front of you, use props and just have fun! After all, I like how pictures can help us being more confident with ourselves.
And why? Do you use the golden hour is you shootings?
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