The golden hour around sunset and sunrise are conventionally used to lend great lighting to landscapes and other expansive examples of outdoor photography (see our article on how to photograph sunsets for example), but can equally be used to get great portraits. These examples show that the incredible lighting and shadows can be used as both a feature to light the person or as a great background. Enjoy them and use them as inspiration for your own efforts.

Photo by bryaan films

Photo by Spencer Backman

Image by Huweijie07170

Image by MelancholiaPhotography


Image by Free-Photos

Image by Pexels

Image by Jean-Daniel Francoeur

Photo by Cody Black

Photo by Milan Popovic

Photo by Talen de St. Croix

Photo by Danijela Froki

Photo by Arjunsyah

Image by Ddimitrova

Image by Pexels

Image by Andre Furtado

Photo by Warren Wong

Image by Robert Bejil

Image by Eric Benacek

Image by Sean McGrath

Image by Todd Baker

Image by Daniele Pieroni

Image by Phillip Grondin

Image by Dr. Wendy Longo

Image by Florin Draghici

Image by Chris Willis

Image by John Morgan

Image by Vesna Pukich

Image by Derick Adame

Image by Evan Mitchell

Image by John O'Nolan

Summer is slow to come – I've never experienced anything like this in June in NJ before. Here is another shot from a few weeks ago when there was some sun 😉 Happy Sunday everyone.
Image by Nathan Siemers

Image by Ben Cheng

Image by Josh Connell

Image by Andrei Ianovski
14 Comments
I LOVE Golden Hour! Great shots, they really show the versatility you can get during this lighting phase. Here are my favorite shots I’ve taken that show off the sun’s gorgeous light!
Nice pictures. Great use of lighting!
Thanks for the inspiration!
Superb. Great shots.
love the lighting this guy uses, genius! https://www.solifestyle.com/2011/07/photographer-focus-aaron-feaver.html
Seems that most of these photos use strobes rather than ambient light, so the time of day is rather irrelevant. Nice sunsets though.
Great shots, way to use the light
so amazing i like it
Great shots, I love the golden light.
Very nice shots
Looking to find that perfect time for sunrise, sunset, Golden Hour and/or Blue Hour? Check out the GoldenPic app for iPhone and Android!
Beautiful!
Find more info on GoldenPic at
Very nice examples!