Magic hour! Time to shoot

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Hey all!

In one of my earlier posts, I shared a story where I was photographing Almelo during the night. While photographing during the night can be quite an experience on its own, another great time to capture photographs is during magic hour. It's also referred to as the Golden Hour. Do you know those stunning Sunsets? Well, right before that, or... if I should say, right before, during, and a bit after that is called "Magic Hour". It's where all the dust particles that are floating around are being lit by the Sun as it moves closer to our horizon.

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While Sunsets and Sunsets both have magic hours, there is a difference. During Sunrise, the world just started to wake up, so a lot of dust particles have settled and stopped moving. Whereas, during Sunsets, everybody just stopped working but is still very busy being alive. Dust particles still move around quite a bit, and I believe that this adds up to these stunning Sunsets we see now and then. There is a very helpful application out there for your phone "Golden Hour". It accurately calculates the time when the Sun will rise and set. Furthermore, it will give you some more useful information if you browse through the minimalistic user interface of the application.

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I went back to the City Hall of Almelo, so I could have photographs of the building both during the night and during sunset. I tried to remember where I stood when I was photographing the building in complete darkness. While I didn't succeed to match the exact location, I did manage to capture some nice light in the photograph.

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The setting Sun was too distracting so I thought it would be nice to see if I could chase it and see what shots I could come up with. I'm not quite sure anymore, but I believe the window of this exact moment is just about 10-15 minutes. If you're not prepared (like me), you should just photograph what you can, around you. If you're prepared, you should already be at the location. That's why it's smart to do some scouting and memorize specific locations. The application I told you about, should tell you in what direction the Sun would be setting in case you're somewhere during the day.

Enjoy these shots!

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Finding the right balance

It was quite difficult to find the right balance when you shoot directly in the Sun. You don't want to blow up the sky, but you also want to see something in the foreground. Checking your histogram will prevent you from making rash decisions, especially when you're looking through your viewfinder at a hot burning Sun. I often got home just to find myself shooting overexposed, or underexposed photographs because I did not pay attention to the histogram. Always trust your histogram!

Oh yeah... There is another application for your computer when you plan landscape photography. It's called Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE). I think I still have it somewhere on my old laptop. Do you plan your landscape or magic hour trips?

Cheers,
Ruben

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