Good lighting can transform a landscape from the ordinary to the spectacular. The so called ‘golden hour’, the hour just after sunrise and before sunset is aptly named. With the sun low in the sky it gives off a magical golden light that casts long shadows giving the scene depth and emphasizing the features of the landscape. Of course your photography isn’t just limited to these two hours but they are undeniably the best time for taking landscape photographs. The photograph of Dunnet Head on the north coast of Scotland shows what good light can do to the landscape. The cliffs in the distance are glowing in the warm light and the shadows on the rocks in the foreground help to give the image depth.
Dunnet Head taken from Thurso. Canon EOS 1D MkIV with 17-40mm f4 L lens. 0.6secs at f16 ISO100
The pre-dawn colours as the light starts to creep across the horizon, and the after glow left by the setting sun can all offer good opportunities for photographs especially if water is involved. The water reflects the colours of the sky, sometimes producing amazing results. This image of Melvich beach was taken ten minutes after the sun had set. The tide was going out and I set my tripod up in the middle of a large pool of water to make the most of the reflections using a wet rock as foreground interest.
Melvich beach. Canon EOS 1D MkIV with 17-40mm f4 L lens. 1.6secs at f16 ISO100
Of course you aren’t just limited to these narrow windows of time. During winter the sun is always low in the sky giving opportunities for photography all day, the further north you travel the lower the sun will be in the sky. A winter holiday to Scotland may seem like a bad idea with only six hours of daylight and freezing temperatures but the quality of light is amazing. Not only that but as there are less people around the chance of a hill walker in a bright orange jacket wandering into your composition is greatly reduced. This image of a mountain hut in the Caingorm mountains was taken at midday.
Caingorm national park. Canon EOS 5D MkII with 50mm f1.4 lens. 1/200th sec at f11 ISO100
Shooting straight into the sun there is always a risk of lens flare. It isn't always a bad thing, for me this photograph is about the sun and the flare adds to the image. Would I rather it wasn't there? Well, yes, but it is there and to be honest I really don't want to have to try and remove it in photoshop.
I try not to mess around with my images in photoshop prefering to get the image right in-camera in the first place by using graduated ND filters. To minimise the risk of lens flare you should wait until the sun in partially hidden by something and then take the photograph. In this case I did wait for the sun to almost disappear behind the cloud and take another image, but the sun just didn't look as good as it did in this picture so this is the image that made the final edit, lens flare and all.
Dawn on the west coast of Scotland. Canon EOS 1D MkIV with 17-40mm f4 L lens. 0.3secs at f16 ISO100
Cullin Mountains, Isle of Skye. Canon Eos 5D Mk2 with 24-70 f2.8 L lens. 1/125 sec at f5.6 ISO100
The above image of the Cullin mountains goes against all the advice of not shooting in strong sunlight in the middle of the day. Although the light was very harsh it has illuminated areas of the image helping to give it depth. The clouds have added drama, the fishing boats are just in the right place and the sunlight on the cliffs to the far right of the image finishes it all off. I often find images shot in high contrast situations such as this lend themselves well to being converted to black and white, my choice of program being the excellent Silver Efex Pro. This image was taken in mid July. Winter is unquestionably the best time to photograph the Cullins from this angle as the sun rises from the right of the picture and sets to the left, allowing both golden hours to be used to good effect. It is always with great reluctance that I leave this viewpoint but as the sunset wouldn't be in the best position and heavy rain was imminent I managed to tear myself away, after capturing some rather nice photographs of the bride and groom I had taken there.