Mastering Exposure and Settings
Golden hour light can be tricky because it’s softer and less intense than midday sun. Adjusting your camera settings ensures proper exposure and preserves detail in both shadows and highlights.
ISO: Keep ISO as low as possible to reduce noise. In most cases, ISO 100–400 is ideal.
Aperture: For landscapes, use a smaller aperture (f/8 to f/16) to achieve a deep depth of field, keeping both the foreground and background sharp.
Shutter Speed: Adjust shutter speed based on available light. Slower speeds may require a tripod, especially if you want to capture motion, such as sand blowing in the wind.
White Balance: Set your white balance to “Daylight” or manually adjust to preserve the warm tones of golden hour.
Experiment with bracketing, taking multiple shots at different exposures. This technique can be combined later in post-processing to create high dynamic range (HDR) images that retain the full range of tones in your scene.