Golden Hour

Any photographer knows the importance of lighting within a composition. I do most of my portraiture work in an overcast environment; the diffusion allows for well balanced images, the absence of shadows, and subjects separating well from their backgrounds. Occasionally, however, a “sunset shoot,” or a shoot within “Golden Hour” allows for glowing skin tones and sharp definition within the subject.

I attempted to use the warmth of the sun to my advantage. The first and third photos are shot in direct sunlight. Shooting in direct sunlight, particularly when the sun is at a low angle in the sky, exacerbates the potential for the photographer’s shadow to be casted onto the subject- defeating the purpose! To avoid the shadow, photo 1 was shot at an angle accentuating the jawline (from below).

Photo 2 was shot directly into the sun, with the light coming from the right of the image. When shooting into shadows, it is easy to lose the warmth of the golden hour. However, with minor touchups in post, the warmth can be drawn out of the image.

I used my Sony 90mm, f2.8 macro lens attached to a Sony A7R III for this shoot.