AM vs PM golden hour

[RodinalDuchamp]

Are there any noticeable differences besides direction when shooting 1 hour after sunrise (AM) vs 1 hour before sunset (pm)

I use the term 1 hour loosely. But are there differences in quality of light affected by whether the sun is setting or rising? Besides direction.

[N Dhananjay]

Sunset tends to be dustier - more stuff likely to be happening but sunrise tends to be cleaner color. Just my take but this is based on painting observation, not photographing...DJ

[RodinalDuchamp]

Thanks that's a good point and it certainly makes sense at least in populated areas where people would be more active towards dusk. That might be a positive or a negative depending on content/context

[RSalles]

Agree with N Dhananjay, around the place I live the air is more humid at the morning, dust settles and the impression I have is a cleaner "air", and it obviously reflects in the pictures taken. Theere is also the morning fog, which can introduce a new element in composition. Those 2 Golden Hours has their ins & outs which have to be taken in consideration,IMO,

Cheers,

Renato

[Mark Sawyer]

I tend to be a lot more hung over in the AM golden hour...

[Drew Bedo]

Difference?

For the evening golden hour I am still awake! The main obstacle is that it often coinxides with the family dinner hour.

To address the question: My perception is that the evening is a wrmer light while the AM lighting seems cooler. this may be a function of morning dew/mist etc or it may be a subjective thing.

[RodinalDuchamp]

The ability to be awake during the AM seems to be the crux for most as it is for me as well. And moon rise NM makes a strong case for the PM [emoji1]

[jp]

AM golden hour, I'm sleeping or getting coffeed. I have seen it and photographed in it though on rare occasion. Direction is the main difference for me. I am near the ocean and the ocean is generally more still in the morning if that's important.

[William Whitaker]

If you're shooting architecture, perhaps interior window lights would be more prevalent in the evening with late workers. Just a thought....

[thomasfallon]

I tend to be a lot more hung over in the AM golden hour...


And drinking to get that way in the evening golden hour. It is named the golden hour because that is the color of beer.

[RodinalDuchamp]

If you're shooting architecture, perhaps interior window lights would be more prevalent in the evening with late workers. Just a thought....
That's a great point too!

So far y'all have shared some things that seem obvious but are worth sharing for consideration.

[RodinalDuchamp]

AM golden hour, I'm sleeping or getting coffeed. I have seen it and photographed in it though on rare occasion. Direction is the main difference for me. I am near the ocean and the ocean is generally more still in the morning if that's important.
I have never been a "morning" person. Even with kids now, I let my wife take the 6am morning shift lol.

I have tried to force myself into that lifestyle but I can't do it, my wife on the other hand is up before the crack of dawn everyday

[Old-N-Feeble]

I tend to be a lot more hung over in the AM golden hour...

You're not mixing with enough water. ;)

[Tin Can]

In summer, dawn is so early, I often am still awake.

Worked 2nd shift for so many years, I still stay up to 3 or 4 am and have to force myself to bed.

I shoot primarily at that hour on a roof, as the streets can be iffy, until day people start moving. Bars close here at 4 am, 5 am Saturday. Then they drive to the closest town which opens at 6 am... Stone Park used to never close.

[adelorenzo]

At my latitude the morning golden hour right now falls between 5 and 6 AM (and getting earlier) which basically rules it out for me. I've never been much of a morning person. OTOH in the dead of winter I can shoot golden hour at noon! Probably explains why my winter stuff is heaps better than my summer shots.

Right now we've been on a string of two weeks of hot, sunny, mostly cloudless weather. Even in the evenings, if it is before 9 or 10 PM, I'm shooting in the heat, full sun, with atmospheric haze possibly mixed with smoke from forest fires. It is a challenge, but not as much of a challenge as getting out of bed at stupid o'clock. :)

[RSalles]

This is sort of OT and a opportunity to introduce some color digital in the thread, taking note of one of my greatest sorrows in photo: the end of color film labs available in my country.

For illustration purposes:

PM:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8230/8497260586_6c279375cb_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/dWSFwS)PR013JAN-0915 (https://flic.kr/p/dWSFwS) by Renato Salles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallesrenato/), no Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3823/9665954979_0f0949308b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/fJ9xEc)MG_8027_cefx (https://flic.kr/p/fJ9xEc) by Renato Salles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallesrenato/), no Flickr

AM:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8389/8494231096_b7455fd4b3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/dWB9Yh)DSC_0732_CFX_web (https://flic.kr/p/dWB9Yh) by Renato Salles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallesrenato/), no Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7414/9203476563_86a002c5a0_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/f2hdWp)PRO2013-5402 (https://flic.kr/p/f2hdWp) by Renato Salles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallesrenato/), no Flickr

Cheers,

RSalles

[RodinalDuchamp]

This is sort of OT and a opportunity to introduce some color digital in the thread, taking note of one of my greatest sorrows in photo: the end of color film labs available in my country.

For illustration purposes:

PM:
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8230/8497260586_6c279375cb_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/dWSFwS)PR013JAN-0915 (https://flic.kr/p/dWSFwS) by Renato Salles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallesrenato/), no Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3823/9665954979_0f0949308b_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/fJ9xEc)MG_8027_cefx (https://flic.kr/p/fJ9xEc) by Renato Salles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallesrenato/), no Flickr

AM:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8389/8494231096_b7455fd4b3_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/dWB9Yh)DSC_0732_CFX_web (https://flic.kr/p/dWB9Yh) by Renato Salles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallesrenato/), no Flickr

https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7414/9203476563_86a002c5a0_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/f2hdWp)PRO2013-5402 (https://flic.kr/p/f2hdWp) by Renato Salles (https://www.flickr.com/photos/sallesrenato/), no Flickr

Cheers,

RSalles
That last shot is worth waking up at any hour, what an amazing quality. Great shot.

[LabRat]

If you are shooting swimsuit/nude models... Shoot in the PM because (a) the light effect lasts longer, and (b) the models don't get goosebumps in the chilly morning air...

Steve K

[Liquid Artist]

I often find that the most interesting side of an object only gets the sun shining on it for a little period of time, so that is the time I try taking the shot.

There are of course more factors to consider. Such as weather, and even my work schedule. Although I don't do it all the time, I have been known to get up at some ungodly hour just to take one single photo.
I have never regretted it.

[RSalles]

Thank you, Duchamp!

Cheers,

Renato

[John Olsen]

I prefer the pm golden hour (actually about 3 minutes). I can set up camera and fill lights in the afternoon and then pounce on the sunset glow. I don't pounce on much of anything in the predawn moments. I've done it mind you, but it has had to be an exceptional occasion. As other respondents noted, the most important factor is which face of your fixed subject, East or West, is the best scene. If you've got a model, that's different, but they're generally not eager to be out in the predawn chill either.

The comment above about the still air of dawn is important though. In New Mexico we could see the thermal waves by mid-morning, so long shots were out in the afternoon.

[DG 3313]

AM, I can sneak out of the house with a coffee. I let my wife sleep-in (after working all week) and go to the usual places and hope for unusual conditions. I haven't taken a photo of a sunset since November (we were in Maui). The quiet mornings are the best time for me to get out.

[steveo]

I've camped out on a couple of occasions to get the morning shot, mainly because sunrise in the summer in is about 0430 and I'm not that much of morning person and partly because its far less hassle to set an alarm trip the shutter then get back to sleep for a couple of hours.

I did this last year, the morning light does seem much "cleaner" than the warmer evening light.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5612/15611995846_bd24b49316_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/pMzysb)Last Light, Moon Light, First Light (https://flic.kr/p/pMzysb) by Steven (https://www.flickr.com/photos/49248828@N06/), on Flickr

[Lenny Eiger]

I always thought that photography was a response to life, to seeing something, to understanding something. Dawn light is magical, but so is that 4PM silvery gray that happens where everything shines, especially for b&w. Life happens all day long, however. You might point you camera in the shadows instead of the high noon light, if you want, or you might make a photo that is about that harsh light. However, if you relegate you shooting to 10 minutes a day, you miss 99.722 % of what is going on.

It's a fair question, from a technical point of view. However, I have met some that take it too literally. Photography that is only about color, or morning light is quite limited vs what is really possible...

Lenny

[John Kasaian]

I'll take whatever I can get, AM and PM

[Greg Miller]

I'm a habitual morning shooter. I don;t like getting up at 4:00 AM, but my reasoning is, that as much as it suck getting up that early, if I get a good shot I have that for the rest of my life. And in a few months the pain of getting up early will be long gone.

I probably have four keepers from morning shoots for every one that is an evening shoot. But as a landscape shooter I am more interested in the direction of the light, as in where does the sun rise and set on the horizon. The sun rises and sets in the southeast/southwest in the winter (at least in the northern hemisphere) and northeast/northwest in the summer. If I am shooting a mountain range that runs north/south, I don't really want to shoot it around the vernal/autumnal equinoxes because at those times the sun rises due eat and sets due west. That direction of light is front lighting and renders no shadows on the contours of the mountains. On the Solstices (when the sun rises/sets at it most southerly/northerly points) the direction of the sun will provide oblique lighting on the contours of the mountains and will render lots of shadows that yields dimensionality in the resulting 2D image.

So I do care about shooting and evening light, but I choose my specific shooting location based on where the sun will rise/set and how that direction of light fits with the the subject. In the workshops trhat I teach, i show participant show to look at a scene, and easily determine the best time to return based on where the sun will rise/set.

[Vaughn]

I am sure glad the redwoods are best from 10am to 2pm...

[jp]

http://photoephemeris.com/ has a nice app for your tablet/phone that will show the direction of sun (and moon) at any time in the future for any location, overlaid on a map. It's good.

shadowfacts is a simpler app to show the angle/direction/time without the maps.

[Liquid Artist]

If you're shooting architecture, perhaps interior window lights would be more prevalent in the evening with late workers. Just a thought....
With the exception of Dairy Farms.
Those dam cows want to get milked early, so the poor farmers have to wake up early.

[Alan Gales]

I'll take whatever I can get, AM and PM

Crack of noon in bright sunlight? ;)

[Brian Sims]

There seems to be common response that morning is golden and evening is more red.
So I consulted my wife who is a mentor on the physics forum. I asked her to post the question there. She rolled her eyes and me and said this is not a difficult question.
The cool, humid night settles a lot of dust out of the air. By evening, the drier air and daytime activities and winds pick up a lot of dust. Dust particles scatter red light. That's the physics behind red sunsets and golden sunrises.

[RodinalDuchamp]

There seems to be common response that morning is golden and evening is more red.
So I consulted my wife who is a mentor on the physics forum. I asked her to post the question there. She rolled her eyes and me and said this is not a difficult question.
The cool, humid night settles a lot of dust out of the air. By evening, the drier air and daytime activities and winds pick up a lot of dust. Dust particles scatter red light. That's the physics behind red sunsets and golden sunrises.
Awesome! That's actually very useful to know or rather understand.


I went shooting this afternoon down here in Florida and one thing I noticed is that the length of time that creates good or optimal light seems to be longer in the afternoon than in the morning. It may be just an issue of perception. But I went and shot from about 6:00-7:30 at about 6 different spots along the same road and felt like the quality of light stayed VERY consistent.

In the morning I don't think the light is as consistent for an equal amount of time.

[Kirk Gittings]

If you're shooting architecture, perhaps interior window lights would be more prevalent in the evening with late workers. Just a thought....

We don't ever leave that to chance, especially now with lights on sensors. We always get access and have people on the inside keeping lights on coordinated via cell phones with me.

[Rayt]

I shoot in urban areas and the mix of natural and artificial light near sunset is more interesting but I don't get trampled in the early morning.

[Mark Sawyer]

I shoot in urban areas...

Geez, are you being watched by the NSA... :rolleyes:

[Rayt]

Geez, are you being watched by the NSA... :rolleyes:

I have a dark cloth that matches perfectly with my burka.