Golden Hour: The Great Big Lie

I’m going to acknowledge right up front that this post is going to upset some people. It’s likely that I’ll get some angry letters and possibly a few death threats. (Okay, so probably no death threats, but some photographers really will be pretty upset and a few of them will even have just cause.) Most of them, however, will just be mad that I’m ripping the bandaid off. It will hurt but it needs to be done. The Golden Hour lie needs to die.

The Sad Story:

It goes something like this. You call (or email, or text, or message, or…) a photographer about shooting your session. Let’s say that you are interested in having some photos taken of your darling little family (you just had a baby a few months ago, Johnny, and he’s sooooo cute) and your little pupper named Pete-o. The photographer tells you that they would super-love to shoot your adorbs family sesh but that you’ll need to keep little Johnny up until 8pm because that’s golden hour. Golden hour, you see, is special. (No really, Google it. You’ll get results like this one) It’s when all of the ‘magical’ lighting comes out to play and when photographers can feel nirvana of rainbows and sunshine. Or at least sunshine, anyway. So you keep little Johnny up until way past his bedtime so that you can have that perfect golden hour photoshoot. Your husband (sorry to the guys that are reading this, you’re a minority here so just go ahead and pretend you’re mom for a few minutes) is already upset because the Chiefs are playing and he’s missing it, and now Johnny is cranky because he’s tired. Fortunately, Pete-o is thrilled to be outside when lots of things are making noise, so at least you have a hyperactive dog on your hands, that’s definitely a win. The photographer is thrilled, the lighting is great, but everyone else is pretty much over the whole thing already.

Sound familiar? Maybe it does, maybe not, but it’s certainly something that many people have experienced.

The Familiar ‘Truth’ about Golden Hour:

Golden hour has been touted by photographers so heavily in the last 5-10 years that it’s officially entered into the popular lexicon. Even people who have never picked up a camera know that you need to shoot during golden hour if you want the best photos. In fact, over the course of the last year or so, I’ve been asked no less than 10 times ‘will we even be able to get good photos if we don’t schedule anything for golden hour?’ Let me answer that very, very clearly: yes, you will. Yes you WILL get GREAT photos if you don’t schedule any time during golden hour. In point of fact, you will probably get better photos if you don’t schedule them all during golden hour, with one very important caveat: You’ll get better photos outside of golden hour if you hire a competent photographer.

Wait. Are you saying that photographers who love golden hour aren’t competent? Nope! I am 100% not saying that. However, I am saying that if a photographer is dependent on ‘golden hour’ to create quality images, they are not a competent professional. You see, golden hour is a lot like T-Ball. You are starting off with the easiest possible combination of objectives. There is no real complexity involved. Buy an expensive camera, stick it on aperture priority mode, turn the dial until you hit the smallest number available, and viola, you have ‘dreamy’ golden hour images. Add in a few OTC Lightroom presets and you might even have enough to start your own photography business! I say that with some hyperbole of course, but the reason that I called this a bandaid is because it’s close enough to the truth that it pulls some people’s hairs off as I’m pulling it. Golden hour, when used in this fashion, is very much a crutch.

You don’t want to hire a photographer who uses crutches, do you?

The Hard Truth about ‘Golden Hour’:

Now, I should take a moment to mention that not every photographer who shoots at golden hour is like this. I, myself, shoot during golden hour on rare occasion. After all, it certainly can be beautiful. There’s no doubt about that. However, there is a big difference between taking advantage of golden hour and needing to shoot at golden hour. If your photographer shoots 80 or 90% of their sessions at golden hour, maybe it’s time to start asking why. Why does my photographer need golden hour to create the magic I see on their website?

The answer, for most photographers that fit that description, is very simple: because they don’t have the technical skills necessary to do much else. Or they don’t have the equipment. Or both. They simply have no idea what to do if the lighting outside isn’t ideal.

The Solution:

Now, why is that a problem? Why does it really matter? It matters because a photographer who doesn’t know how to control light isn’t so much a photographer as a button presser. Or perhaps a Photoshop magician. Photography is all about seeing light and using it (or creating it) to your best advantage. If your wedding day (or family photo day, or whatever day) comes and the lighting isn’t nice or ‘isn’t in the right place‘, you want a photographer that can quickly adjust and still create images that rock your face off. There aren’t always do-overs! Take these few images below as examples. The two on the left were taken HOURS before ‘Golden Hour’ whereas the one on the far right was taken right smack in the middle of the ‘best’ light of the day. How dramatic would that image have looked had I not been prepared with multiple flashes, even in the rain?

A Few Last Words

Here, at the Golden Hour of the blog post, I have a just a few final words. The most important point is that you want a photographer that is going to be able to produce professional caliber images no matter what kind of lighting they are given. If it’s perfect right out of the proverbial chute, great! If not, no worries, they can grab a light (or two, or three, or nine) out of their car and create great light. In other words, you want boy-scout style photographers, no matter what you throw at them they will be prepared for it! In this day and age where everyone knows a photographer, do your homework! Ask the important questions and take a look at their work (here’s mine, I’ll make it easy!). After that, pick a photographer whose style you love! One who will make sure that you end up with artwork on your walls that will last forever.