Golden Hour Wedding Photography in the Whitsundays

Golden Hour Wedding Photography

In wedding photography, timing is everything. Every photographer knows that the right light can transform a moment into a masterpiece! That’s where the magic of the golden hour comes into play. As the sun dips low on the horizon, painting the world in a warm, ethereal glow, it creates an enchanting canvas for capturing the most cherished moments of a wedding day. In this post, we’ll explore why the golden hour is hailed as the pinnacle of natural lighting for wedding photography.

So let’s dive into the art of capturing love, bathed in the golden embrace of nature’s finest hour!

The “golden hour” refers to the period shortly after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is low in the sky, creating soft, warm, and diffused light. This time of day is highly sought after by wedding photographers.

The light is soft. The transition from light to dark is gradual and the diffused soft light is universally flattering for everyone. The low angle of the sun creates a beautiful warm glow and spectacular colours. We can easily manipulate this colour and turn the entire scene a deep, rich blue. In our eyes this is perfect for the Whitsundays (or simply for some variety)!

With the sun low in the sky, you can create back lighting, side lighting, or front lighting with just the sun and a reflector or a modified fill flash.

For a while we loved shooting mainly in the opposite direction to everyone else. We’d use the soft setting sun as the main light on our couples. It’s an extremely flattening light and the sky is naturally a much deeper blue. Try this for yourself. The next time you view a sunset, turn 180 degrees and look at the rich blue of the sky (opposite the sunset).

Of course, these days, we’re much more versatile (and that’s definitely an advantage of having an experienced wedding photographer)! We’ll shoot against the setting sun, so that we get the lovely colours of the sky, but we will also use the sun as a backlight, and sometimes as a beautiful hair light. All we then need to do is add some additional soft light onto our wedding couple’s faces and we have the ingredients for a truly specular location wedding portrait!

And then we simply turn off our additional lights and we can get a stunning silhouettes almost for free (as all the ingredients and settings are already there!!

In the above image of the bride on the groom’s back at Hideaway Bay (Hydeaway Bay) we photographing with the sun setting and a video light on the bride. We love how it’s a free and playful image. What’s better is that suited the wedding couple!

Come close. Don’t tell anyone this. But in North Queensland we get this beautiful “golden hour” of sun for every wedding at the end of the Location Portraits. It’s one of this regions best kept secrets. Down South, the sun sets during the reception. Oh what a waste!!

That’s a wrap for Golden Hour Wedding Photography.

Talk to us about your Whitsunday Wedding so we can
work together to create a wedding tailored to your wishes!

If you have any questions about wedding photography in Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays
feel free to ask us in the comments below,
or contact Warren @ warren.papas@hotmail.com

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in Airlie Beach the Whitsundays you can click HERE.