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Composition3 min read

LESSON 33

Golden hour and blue hour

The two softest lights of the day.

IN THIS LESSON

  1. What the golden hour is
  2. It is not really an hour
  3. The blue hour
  4. In practice: using both

What the golden hour is

The golden hour is the time shortly after sunrise and shortly before sunset, when daylight is redder and softer than at midday. Cinematographers and photographers sometimes call it the magic hour. The cause is distance through air. When the sun is low, its light crosses much more atmosphere, so direct light is weaker and more of the scene is lit by the sky. That lowers the contrast between light and shade. More blue is scattered on the way, so the direct sun looks warm. The low angle also stretches shadows, which brings out texture in faces, stone, sand and fields.

It is not really an hour

The name is loose. How long the effect lasts depends on season and latitude, because it is set by the height of the sun, not the clock. The source gives Los Angeles as an example: an hour after sunrise the sun stands about 10 to 12 degrees high. Near the equator the sun climbs faster, so the soft light is shorter. Far from it, the sun climbs slowly and the warm light lasts longer; in some places and seasons the sun never gets above 10 degrees and the whole day is golden. So check the sun's height for your place and date, not a fixed time.

The blue hour

The blue hour comes just before sunrise and just after sunset, when the sun is well below the horizon and the remaining light turns mostly blue. It sits around the nautical stage of twilight, and it has no official definition. Shadows are soft or gone, because there is no direct sun. The common explanation, that the sky simply scatters blue, is incomplete: the source explains that absorption by ozone is what makes the blue dominate. The blue hour is shorter near the equator and longer near the poles. In one worked example, in Egypt on 21 June, it ran from 7:59 to 9:35 in the evening.

In practice: using both

This section is working practice. For portraits, golden light from the side or behind gives warm skin and a bright rim on hair; face the person away from the sun to stop squinting. For landscapes, look for the long shadows that show shape. The blue hour is the time for cities. As the sky darkens, it reaches the same brightness as street lights, signs and lit windows, so both the sky and the lights hold detail in one exposure. Arrive early and set up a tripod, because exposures get long quickly and the best few minutes pass fast.

Try it today

  1. 01Look up sunrise and sunset for your place tomorrow and plan to be out for both.
  2. 02Shoot the same scene at midday and again in the golden hour, and compare shadows.
  3. 03Photograph a person with the low sun behind them for a rim of light.
  4. 04Stay after sunset and shoot a street every five minutes until the sky turns dark.
  5. 05Pick the frame where the sky and the lit windows look equally bright.