The Golden Hours
In landscape photography, the quality of light is essential to making beautiful photos. If you photograph a mountain in the middle of the day in full sunlight, you will generally find that your images have washed-out colors, because the harsh sunlight will have drowned them out. My favorite times to photograph are as the sun rises and just after it sets. These times of day are called “the golden hours” (or “the magic hours”) by many photographers (Figure 6.11). During these times, the light is coming from a very low angle to the landscape, which creates shadows and gives depth and character.
Figure 6.11. This image of Lake Tahoe, California, was taken just as the sun was about to rise over the horizon.
Clouds have the potential to add a lot of color to an image that is taken during the golden hours. As the sun approaches the horizon (during either sunrise or sunset), its light can reflect off low clouds, producing an amazing light show for you to capture (Figure 6.12).
