Five Tips for Shooting outfit photos at Golden Hour

August 11, 2017 7 Comments
tips for shooting in golden hour
tips for shooting in golden hour
tips for shooting in golden hour
Tips for Shooting outfit photos at Golden Hour
tips for shooting in golden hour

If you fancy switching up your blog photos and capturing some truly gorgeous light then there's no time better to shoot than the "Golden Hour". The first and last hour of sunlight is an incredible time to take photos thanks to the soft, warm sunlight glow and can give your snaps a really different look to the usual bright, crisp photos. Get your Golden Hour photos right and you can create a hazy glow and some incredible "bokeh" (light effects) but it can be tricky to get your snaps perfect so here are my Five Tips for Shooting outfit photos at Golden Hour.

ONE - PLAN YOUR SHOOT

If you want to shoot an outfit in the golden hour you need to be well organised and plan your timings. The Golden hour doesn't last that long so you want to know exactly where your heading and what time to arrive to maximize your time. I prefer the last hour of sunshine only because I'm not a big early riser and of course throughout the year this one hour window will differ. At the moment (August) you want to arrive ready to shoot at around 7 or 7.30pm.

 

TWO - USE A WIDE APERTURE

To get the best chance of capturing light flares and bokehs (blurry balls of light in background) you want as wide an aperture as possible, so shoot with a lens like a 50mm or 45mm that has an aperture that can go down to 1.8. This means the aperture is as wide as possible and letting lots of light in so you'll get lovely background blur and effects. All of these photos were shot using the Olympus Pen and 45mm lens

THREE - PLAY WITH HEIGHT

To create different qualities of light try playing around with height. Get your photographer to move around and experiment with the sun directly behind your head which creates a darker photo with some light flare around the edges. For a brighter effect and a much hazier photo play with shooting from down low, with the sun coming just past you and into the camera. Try lots of angles and you'll see you get different effects.

Tips for Shooting outfit photos at Golden Hour
Tips for Shooting outfit photos at Golden Hour
FOUR - SET YOUR WHITE BALANCE

I like my photos quite cool so I keep my white balance on auto but to really embrace the warm orange tones of golden hour set your white balance to cloudy which will really enhance the colours. 

 

FIVE - FACE THE SUN

This is usually a massive no no, but in the golden hour as the sun is so low and warm you can actually stand with the sun hitting you directly. It will be very warm toned and not for everyone but its the one time you can actually shoot this way. Definitely worth a try as you might love the effect.

 

The key to shooting at golden hour is to keep shooting, the light changes so fast in the last few hour that you'll find your photos will look so different from first ones to the last ones you take. I love hazy photos like this but bear in mind they can haze out details so make sure you capture some photos without the light effects to show off any details of the outfit. I like to mix the two types together in my posts.

Hope you've enjoyed my Tips for Shooting outfit photos at Golden Hour. I'd love to know what other photography tips posts you'd love to read and do let me know if you try out golden hour shooting for yourself!

 

Debs

x

WAISTCOAT | NECKLACES | BAG | TROUSERS

Photos taken on the Olympus Pen and 45mm lens

 

This post may also contain PR Samples or gifted items. It may also contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here.

 

 

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7 Comments

  • Laurie August 11, 2017 at 8:01 am

    I absolutely love reading your tips for photography Debs. Thank you for sharing these tips, I will give them a try xx
    http://www.vanityandmestyle.com

  • Sophie August 11, 2017 at 12:04 pm

    Loved reading this – I keep wanting to get some golden hour snaps but didnt really have a clue where to start! I did some the other day and I was reasonably happy with the results but I’m definitely showing my boyfriend aka my photographer (poor man) these tips :) Absolutely love the outfit with the little waistcoat and culottes! xxx

    Sophie | Sophar So Good

  • Kirby Small August 11, 2017 at 12:38 pm

    Ah I loved this post! Definitely going to take more of an advantage of the golden hour! I agree with you in regards to the 45mm lens! It’s the best I’ve used, thanks for the great tips! Xx

  • LexiLife August 11, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    Wow. I LOVED this post! I’m wanting to learn more about photography and play with shadows/light maybe some spectrum and this post definitely helped! I’m beginning to appreciate and look at photography a whole lot differently than what i used to. So I’ve officially caught the photography bug! Thanks for this post – will be checking out your others to!! P.S Fab talk at the Blogosphere Party xx

  • Rosa August 14, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    These are all great photography tips – I love shooting at a lower down angle – it creates such a cool effect and it makes me look taller.

    http://ohduckydarling.com

  • Julia August 30, 2017 at 1:26 pm

    I agree with all of these tips and although I’ve only shot in golden hour once while I was on holidays, it was so beautiful and I loved the shots I got from it so I can definitely see why people love shooting at that time of the day. Plus, that light is so much more flattering!

    Julia // The Sunday Mode

  • Mick September 4, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    Debs. I doubt if you get too many men looking at your blog. I found it whilst looking for Olympus Pen EPL7 details. I have used micro 4/3 cameras (mainly Panasonic) since they started in 2008. My interest in photography spans over 50 years. Now the point of this email ! I feel compelled to say a big well done on the quality of your photos, they really are superb. The advice you give is good but the photos are the best that I have seen in years, anyone who thinks that a big heavy DSLR is needed should think again. Micro 4/3 compact system cameras rule ! added of course to your skill.
    Once again, very well done.
    Mick

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