"Golden hour" in winter

I agree. It's not about the time, but about the quality of the light. Even in Summer, that can vary a lot in just 1/2 hour.

WaltA wrote in post #9152592
I think your latitude has a lot to do with how the golden hour changes during the seasons.

Where I live, on the 49th parallel, I think the winter morning golden hour stretches through mid-morning because the sun is so low in the sky.

Having said that, in the winter in BC/WA/OR there are lots of wood stoves so the light is quite diffused thru smoke in the morning.

Good topic.

PS Sunrise here now is about 7:15 AM.

Just spent the last 10mins racking my brain and fwiw my take is that the angle at which the sun rises and sets is fixed for a given latitude regardless of season.
The 'golden hour' is less in the tropics where the sun rises and sets at almost 90 deg, and increases towards the poles as the rising angle decreases.

Sid

What I meant is that from my location in the summer the sun comes up directly in the east towards Calgary Alberta and passes pretty much directly overhead.

In the winter the sun comes up to the southeast (right now I look towards Spokane, WA to see it) and it passes low over the horizon to the south. When its lower on the horizon for a longer time like in the winter, there is a lot of haze from over WA State that creates great sunrise shots for a long time in the morning.

Check out the Ephemeris tool here that explains what I mean. Not sure if thats the "angle" your talking about.

http://stephentrainor.​com/tools

I find the lower sun makes for better lighting during the mid day as the light feels more directional. I think the golden hour still occurs about one hour before sunset, but it's earlier like 4PM, at least here in Los Angeles, where the sun is setting at about 5PM now.

primoz wrote in post #9156383
I guess this depends on certain location. Personally I consider time around dusk and dawn in winter much nicer then in summer.

I agree.. up here in Oslo at the 60th parallell we dont really have that bright harsh daylight anymore these days, just a continous period of golden light between intense, colourful sunrise/sunsets (if the weather is good) and long twilight hours with an intense blue colour everywhere.. My favourite part of the year really

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …joy87/418614674​8/sizes/m/

Interesting thread!

Jooaso, I was just about to post something similar. Up here we seem to have the golden hour for all of the short days. It's wonderful for photography as long as you can find a spot where the sun can reach your subjects.

I'm a little closer to the Equator but we even benefit from the lower intensity of the winter sun here in Arizona. IIRC, the first shot here was taken around 1030am and in the summer, I don't think I could have held the highlights like I could in October.

I dont think "Gloden hour" applies in autumn and winter - i think its more like "Golden 2 hours" because I have certainly noticed the light is better for an extended period during the colder months.

I think it is due to the sun continually being lower in the sky. It extends that diffuse effect for longer.

WaltA wrote in post #9197590
What I meant is that from my location in the summer the sun comes up directly in the east towards Calgary Alberta and passes pretty much directly overhead.

In the winter the sun comes up to the southeast (right now I look towards Spokane, WA to see it) and it passes low over the horizon to the south. When its lower on the horizon for a longer time like in the winter, there is a lot of haze from over WA State that creates great sunrise shots for a long time in the morning.

Check out the Ephemeris tool here that explains what I mean. Not sure if thats the "angle" your talking about.

http://stephentrainor.​com/tools

Thanks for the link, it looks to be really useful. I'm afraid my previous explanation was rather clumsy.
What I was trying to say was that for a given location the elevation of the sun at an hour after sunrise was the same regardless of season.

I was only partly correct in this.

Using this http://www.srrb.noaa.g​ov/highlights/sunrise/​azel.html and this http://www.srrb.noaa.g​ov …ghts/sunrise/su​nrise.html

=============Sunrise time == =========Elevation 1hr after sunrise
Miami 25deg N

Dec 15th ========7.00==========​===== 11.07
March 15th====== 6.30 ===============12.75
June 15th======= 5.29=============== 11.62
Sept 15th =======6.07 ===============12.81

London 51deg N
Dec 15th ========8.00==========​===== 6.01
March 15th =======6.15 ===============8.56
June 15th======== 3.43 ===============6.93
Sept 15th======== 5.36 ===============8.63

Nauru 0deg
Dec 15th =========6.43=========​====== 13.6
Mar 15th========= 6.58 ===============14.22

Two things seem obvious from this. The longest 'golden hour' is around the winter and summer solstice, and shortest around the equinox, and the golden hour lengthens the further north or south you are.

I'm pretty sure the maths are way beyond me, but I've learnt something new today!

Any comments on this?

Sid

Yeah - thats it.

With the TPE program these captures show the difference in azimuth between my location and Tucson, Arizona - just for an example.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.