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In landscape photography since the contrast is lower during the golden hour the warm color of the Sun enhances the colors of the scene. Shapes and textures are highlighted and shadows do not appear to be as dark.

The golden hour occurs two times each day. During the first hour of sunlight of the day and the last hour of sunlight. The perfect time is when the Sun is 6 degrees above and 6 degrees below the horizon. Knowing just when the golden hour will occur in your area is easy to determine thanks to the Golden Hour web site.

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When you go to the Golden Hour web site it will attempt to automatically determine your location. You can adjust the map according to latitude and longitude, but it hit my location perfectly. A satellite map is displayed and your location should be in the center of the map. You can pan around to position yourself where you are now or where you plan to be. You want to location to be right in the middle of the map.

As you adjust the location the web site will adjust giving you all of the information you need to determine the golden hour at that location. The golden hour times are highlighted for sunrise and sunset. At the time this was written the golden hour in the UNC Charlotte area for today was 6:30-7:30 AM and 7:30-8:30 PM. You can also change the date and get golden hour calculations. The current date is noted with the green square.

Visit the Golden Hour web site and always know the golden hour wherever you plan to take photographs.

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“An Idiot’s Guide to Photoshop” starts with the assumption that you know nothing about Photoshop at all and walks you through the basic uses of it. The guide comes with cheat sheets and three full pages of shortcuts. It is a real steal since it is FREE.

Let MakeUseOf’s own Karl Gechlic from AskTheAdmin guide you throughout the different editing possibilities in 30 illustrated pages, and get you to know your paint bucket from your eraser.

Visit the MakeUseOf.com web site to download the FREE PDF “An Idiot’s Guide to Photoshop”. There are really a lot of good sites and guides out there. Soon I will make a list and share them.

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A lens hood helps prevent glare and lens flare. It’s basically a petal-shaped plastic ring that clips onto the end of your lens. In this case, however, it’s a printed piece of paper, which can accomplish the same goal. The site carries custom hoods for upwards of a hundred different lenses, including models from Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Sigma.

Printable lens hoods offer a number of advantages over their costly counterparts:

• Ultra compact – can be carried unfolded.
• No waiting to order one – simply download, print, cut-out and attach.
• Redundancy – don’t worry if you lose one; just print another!
• 100% recyclable
• Can be modified to cater for different digital SLR sensor crop factors.
• Available in both ’rounded’ and ‘petal’ versions.
• They’re absolutely free!

Find your own printable digital lens hoods at Lenshoods.net.

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Use the Magic Hour – The “magic hour” is the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. The lower angle of the sun will provide rich saturated tones that you will get at no other time of the day. Photographers call this “sweet light”. You can get some amazing shots during this hour. It is a near golden glow that makes everything look better. Landscapes will seem enchanted and golden clouds make for some fantastic sunsets. If you are real lucky the magic hour can be enhanced by weather. For instance sunsets just after a rain will leave the air clear and the sunlight reflections from the water can give you refractions and water droplets can become shimmering diamonds.

The Magic Hour - click for larger image

Force Flash Outdoors – You may not think of it, but using your flash outdoors can produce better results under certain circumstances. For instance if you a shooting a target that is in shadow the picture will come out too dark. You camera is sensing all of the sun and determines no flash is needed. To solve this problem force your flash on and it will fill in the light enough to brighten your target. It also has the effect of softening the picture which can be very flattering for facial shots.

Eliminate Shutter Lag – Shutter lag is the time between when you press the trigger button and the camera actual takes the picture. During this time the camera calculates exposure and focus. You may have the perfect picture lined up only to have the subject move in the time it takes to press the trigger and take the picture. To eliminate this problem aim your camera anticipating where the subject will be and half depress he trigger. This allows the camera to calculate the exposure and focus before you take the picture. Hold the trigger half depressed until your shot lines up, then fully press the trigger.

Blurred Background Effect – By creating a shallow dept of field you can create some amazing shots where the focus is on the subject and you get a blurred background effect. To accomplish this select the portrait mode on your camera. Have the subject move away from the background as far as possible. Move away from your subject as far as possible and then zoom in to bring the subject back close as you take the picture. This takes some practice, but when you get it right you will love the effect. You don’t want to go as far as digital zoom or the picture will be too grainy.

Exhale and Pull Your Elbows In – Unless you have a vibration control lens such as those found on higher end camera rigs pulling your elbows in and exhaling as you shot your pictures will help steady your shot. You should practice this with every picture you take so it becomes part of your natural flow. Whenever possible steady yourself by placing your elbows on a firm surface creating a tripod position.

Steady Yourself

Shoot More Candidly – It is hard to walk around with a camera pointing and not get noticed. I think posed pictures meet a need, but the best pictures are those taken when your subject is not aware they are being photographed. One way you can get candid shots is to hide by shooting around something such as the corner of a building, over a shoulder of someone in front of you or shooting through something such as a bush. While it may feel a little creepy, you will get good results from more candid photos.

How to Deal With Direct Light – Shooting in direct light can present challenges. Lens flare, high contrast and saturated colors can ruin the perfect picture. To work around this you need to create shade. If possible have your subject move into the shade and use fill in flash if needed. If you are forced to shoot into the sun be sure and force your flash on to fill in. Other ways to combat direct light include using filters such as a polarizing or neutral density filter. Polarizing filers have the added bonus of giving you some good color. You can use a lens hood to battle lens flare and if available a reflector to redirect light to your subject.

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