Pure Gold
The Magic Hour Money Shot
So here we are… Longer days have arrived and Daylight Savings Time has changed our days as well as light. Days are considerably lengthened. No need to drive home in the dark, you can now enjoy the gold evening glow that comes hand-in-hand with spring. Us photographers normally call this time of day “magic hour” and it falls about one hour or so before the sun sets. The beauty of this “hour” is that it can give your photos a magical glow thanks to the warm sunlight at that time. Everything looks just a little bit more amazing and warm in photos giving us what we photographers would call perfect light. Since we now have more sunlight (and yes, one hour less of sleep) I want to share with you some “Magic Hour Money Shots” and how you can plan that golden hour into your wedding or photo shoot as well!
Many brides and grooms don’t ask their photographer for their perspective on the wedding day details or even timeline but this can be a major oversight! We see everything and can help you plan accordingly so that you can take advantage of what you have available to you and time it out right so your photos can be at the best time as possible. Light can make all the difference between a gorgeous glowing sunlit portrait and a dark snapshot. That being said, PLEASE talk to them about all the details because you never know what will make the difference!!! For example, a bride and groom (and planner) never mentioned to me that they were going to be draping fabric over an outdoor ceremony site. It was beautiful but the fabric was gapped/not overlapping and it cast striped shadows across their face during the ceremony. If I had know about this sooner, I could have told them to overlap the fabric to avoid this. Lighting is KEY!! That being said, please talk to us about your day because you never know what may need to be changed.
Ok – So back to The Magic Hour Money Shot… As I stated above, it is normally the hour before sunset. It is where the sun has a warm, golden hue but at the same time is soft and not harsh with shadows. If you want to incorporate this golden hour into your wedding photos there are a few things to consider.
1) What time will your ceremony be and how long will your ceremony last.
This is important. Many couples do not consider the light with thinking about the ceremony start time. You want to make sure that you have enough time at the end of the ceremony to do all the necessary portraits before sunset. In the summer months this is not as big of a problem because the days are longer but if you are getting married in the winter months or during the shorter daylight savings hours then this gets much more important. Running out of light is the worst thing.
2) Will you be doing a first look and portraits before hand?
Doing a first look can be very helpful in reducing stress, giving you the ability to spend more time with guests and make the day go more smoothly. Given all these benefits, we defiantly suggest doing one. What does this mean? Well choosing to do your photos ahead of time means that there will be some lighting challenges (which any photographer worth their money can handle) and it also means no golden hour photos… kind of. What we normally suggest is to do a first look followed by bridal party portraits. After bridal party is done, we do some of the two of you as a couple followed by family photos if possible. Many people prefer to do family photos after the ceremony but since family pictures are the largest time suck we suggest doing them before. Stick to parents, siblings & Grandparents and then after the wedding ceremony we can do just a few large group shots with aunts, uncles and cousins. There is no need to have a photo with each person individually and it will take so much time that you will be ready to quit half way in! Then depending on when golden hour is, we will sneak you away from the reception (in the summer its usually around dinner time so no one will notice) and get a few more couple shots followed by a few sunset shots. This gives you the time to enjoy most of your cocktail hour with your guests.
Just check out these beautiful Golden Hour photos below to see what we are talking about!
Thank you for reading this post on “The Magic Hour Money Shot” we hope you were able to get some good information to help your wedding run more smoothly and to get the image you love.
Love seeing my son and daughter in law’s gorgeous photos on here!