Golden Hour Wedding Photography Tips for Beginners

Golden hour is that magical hour when the sunbeams reach an hour post sunrise and pre sunset. Magical, soft and dynamic light can bring a lot of romance and interesting dimensions to your captures. As a wedding photographer, once you get details of the wedding time and venue, you may just wish to keep the golden hour in mind and use it to bring out the best in your captures. Since the light is really soft and warm, your subjects will not have any harsh shadows on their faces while being captured. Golden hour photography has its own challenges and as a beginner you would need to keep learning and practicing for really perfect captures on the big day. Here are some tips, which could help you on the big day:

Golden Hour Wedding Photography Tips:

1. Keep check on weather and the golden hour time slice

Keep a check on weather, if you are expecting a cloudy day then there is likelihood that you may not get the best out of the golden hour and you would need to have a backup plan ready for such weather occasions. Apart from which depending on the place of the wedding, if you keep a regular check on the golden hour, you will know the approximate timing when you encounter the hour and how long it stays. This information will help you plan your photo shoot and make the best of the magical hour.

2. Be early, be prepared

Once you have the information of the golden hour handy, make sure that you arrive early and are prepared for exploring the location, experimenting with the settings, taking a few trial shots. A few trial shots with the couple would set tone for the final shots. Remember not to keep the couple waiting for too long. Now all you can do is wait, and let magic arrive.

3. Settings for the hour

So you’ve arrived early, and some basic settings, which you can experiment with. Try using wide aperture and adjust the white balance. Try using a tripod for better and sharper captures. Also you may wish to experiment with various angles for some assortment in your captures.

4. Try silhouettes

With the golden hour fast fading, you will also have some good opportunity to capture silhouettes. Silhouettes of couples make romantic clicks. So you may wish to request a few poses with your subjects and try the silhouette effect.

5. Keep clicking, have fun

The golden magical hour is a small time slice and you have to make the most of it, so keep taking continuous shots and have fun while clicking. You will find some awesome captures.