Sunlight Shoot

[DR_Malibu]

I have a "golden hour" shoot to do tonight with my kids because I have a session coming up so I want to practice. Any advise on settings for my Canon 60D to get the best pics....perhaps poses or info on what I should do. I have a Tameron 70-300mm lens and the canon efs 18-55mm....which would work best? Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Big Mike]

You settings should be the ones that get you the exposure that you want for the shot.
The lens you use should be the one that gives you the framing and persepective that you want for the shot.

When shooting with the sun low in the sky, you can get side lighting, not just on your subjects, but on everything. This as advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, side lighting is often great for portraits and landscapes as it creates lit areas and shadow areas...thus bringing out the dimension and texture. On the down side, the difference between the lit areas and the shadow areas, is likely to exceed the dynamic range of your camera. In other words, if you expose for the lit areas, the rest is dark or black. But if you exposure for the shadows, the highlights are blown out.

A common way to deal with this, is to set your exposure for the lit areas, then do what you get to put some light into the shadow areas. For example, with flash or with a reflector. If you can get a nice balance between the subject and their environment, then you'll likely have a nice photo.

Another benefit is 'golden hour' shooting is the colors that can appear in the sky. You can use that color as a light source (shooting with your subjects facing the sun/sky) or you can use it as a background. But keep in mind that if you use the bright/colorful sky as a background, your subject is likely to have very little (natural) light hitting the front/camera side of them. That is where you would use something to add light to them. A flash can certainly work, but bare flash is the same color as mid-day sunlight, not evening sunlight. So you might end up with a blue/white looking person while the sunset is nice and orange....usually looks weird. Using a reflector is often a good choice here, you might even use a gold reflector to enhance the color of the late day sunlight. Also, a reflector will usually be from an off-camera position, which is a better angle than using a camera mounted flash.

Of course, you usually need a voice activated light stand for a reflector.

 

[Derrel]

One bit of advice is to use a Daylight or "Fine Weather" white balance, if you want the colors to look sunset-like. It's best to set the white balance on the camera manually, so that it does not yo-yo around as the light levels drop, which they do really rapidly as sunset draws nearer and nearer.