Make Use Of The Golden Hours
Ever wondered why that picture that you took of the Grand Canyon while on holiday looked so much blander when compared to the postcards you bought at the place itself? Frequently, the trick to taking better pictures is simply just choosing the right time of the day to take it. As they say, the early bird catches the worm. In photography, the early shutterbug catches the best shots!
Taking brilliant, dramatic scenes may require you to wake up at seemingly unearthly hours! This sunrise scene from Nobby’s Beach at Newcastle, NSW, Australia was caught at daybreak at about 6 A.M. while I was on vacation there.
Taking pictures at the right timing of the day is critical, especially for outdoor and landscape photography. I find the early morning sun the best source of natural light for capturing breathtaking shots. Besides, the lighting is free (unless it’s a rainy day)! Not only are the early rays soft and non-glaring, the golden nature of the lighting provides good colour and saturation. The side-lighting that you get from such a light source results in many dramatically-lit situations that you will unlikely get with the noon-time (overhead) sun. Depending on the subject that you are shooting, it is also more likely for you to get back-lit situations with a low-lying sun which allows for creative exploration with silhouette shots, for getting brilliant, dramatic rim-light effects on your subject or even getting dramatic, elongated shadows to match your subject!
The early morning sunlight provides dramatic, low-lighting situations that allow for creative work with silhouette and rim-light effects. In this scene, not only did the lighting provide pretty dark silhouettes and shadows, the light filtering through the mist in the background created a “layer-effect” which added depth to the scene.
The trade-off with taking early morning shots is of course, having to wake up early! But hey, you get some exercise and fresh air in return, plus the likelihood of getting a smooth, traffic-free journey to your destination. In addition, you will be surprised at how much people activity they can be for you to photograph despite the seemingly unearthly hours.
You will be surprised by the amount of people-activity you might find on an early photo outing. This particular shot of an angler at work was captured right after sunrise by the Lower Seletar Reservoir in Singapore. Note how the soft and gentle low-light gave just a tinge of interesting highlight to the silhouette of the angler hard at work.
For those who really cannot pull themselves out of their comfortable beds at such early hours, the alternative is to take your shots in the evening when the sun is again, nearer the horizon as in the morning. An added benefit of early-evening shots (especially true for night scene photography) is that you get a very nice saturated blue in the sky which acts as a brilliant backdrop for the night scene that you intended to take originally. Contrast this with a complete dull and boring, black sky you would otherwise have gotten if you had taken the night shot after sundown.
Taking night-scenes just right before dusk creates very rich and saturated blue skies which are much more interesting compared to the blander blacks you will get at later hours. This 13-second shot of the Esplanade Theatres in Singapore was taken at about 7pm just before sun-down.
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