📷 'Portrait Photography Contest' Week 20: Golden Hour: Entries 5-8: Individual Portraits

Ahhh, the golden hour. As with every other photographer everywhere that ever held a camera, I love a good golden lit evening. I've experimented with using golden hour and sunset lighting a number of ways over the years, and incorporated it into my professional work whenever time and location allows. I'll have a handful of entries for this theme (probably eight) but I assure you, it was difficult to narrow it down! I feel that I've chosen the best of the best of my portfolio of work.

These are my second four entries: golden hour lighting with real clients, individual portraits.

(To see my first four entries, please click here!)

1. The following was taken during a portrait session to expand the model's portfolio. We shot on her parent's farm out in the country. This was the first session I had the opportunity to use my beloved Lansbaby. It's not for everybody, and it's certainly not for every client, or even very many situations, but when it is fitting, I love the effect! This is an example of soft golden sunset light. The sun was setting to her right, sending out the golden light filtered through some trees to camera-right. The light was bouncing off the overcast skies to camera-left, creating the soft fill light on her face. Thank you, nature!
   

2. The following was taken in the middle of the Oregon desert for a musician's promotional portraits and album cover. We were many, many miles from anything! The wide open space made for some pretty dramatic golden hour lighting, which made it even more fun to use my wide-angle lens. There are some people who scoff at using wide-angle lenses for portraits, but I am not one of those people!
   

3. The following was taken during a senior portrait session. The young lady had spent many years practicing dance and gymnastics, and wanted to incorporate that into her session. We ended her session with this dress in the middle of a field on the outskirts of town, right as the sun was setting over the hills.
   

4. The following is another example of the subtle golden hour light, taken during an autumn portrait session. We had fun playing in the leaves and throwing them up in the air. I took a few images of the falling leaves and composited them together to create the full leaf effect on the final image.
   

Thank you to @jasonrussell for hosting another week of #portraitcontest, and for improving it to make it even better! This week's sponsors are @crimsonclad & @melodyrussell, and the guest judge is @thatkidsblack. Thank y'all!

Thanks for reading,

Dani Mouser | Dani Photography | New Orleans, Louisiana

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