You know those photos that just have a magic quality to them? There is just something about them that makes you feel happy? Well, often that magical feel is because of the light. All you need to do is find the right stuff!

This week we chatted about window light, shade, direct sun, and backlighting. Lots of light! But I think most photographers will agree that there is one type of light that rules above all others…

Golden light.

It’s soft, warm, dimensional, and just flat-out magical. It adds a quality to images that can’t be replicated no matter how many actions, filters, or textures you use.

Best of all? It’s totally free, and comes around almost every single day. Twice!

Is everything a good enough answer?

Ok, let’s break it down.

GOLDEN LIGHT IS SOFT.

The light is traveling through more of the Earth’s atmosphere, and that really softens it up. And like we talked about earlier this week, soft light makes people look pretty. Harsh light doesn’t.

In fact, golden light can become so soft that you can have your subjects facing straight into the sun, and they won’t squint, they won’t look shiny, and the light will be super flattering. Seriously, it’s like magic.

Softer light. No squinties:

GOLDEN LIGHT IS WARM.

Warm as in color temperature. With golden light, more of the blue wavelengths are scattered, and so the light naturally looks more red/yellow. Warmer tones are generally more flattering on people. Think of tanning—people like their skin to be golden!

Warm (more yellow toned) light:

saradoug059.jpg

GOLDEN LIGHT IS DIMENSIONAL.

Just before sunset the sun is very low in the sky. This produces more directional light because of the low angle. Basically, it adds more dimension to the scene! Shadows are longer (and softer) than during the day, and things just look more interesting and dynamic.

Remember, photographs are 2D representations of a 3D world. Dimension in the light helps suggest that three dimensionality!

Loooooong shadows:

How to get more information about an image that you have seen online using Google Image Search. You see a picture on a webpage but want more information about it. There is no title to search with. There is an easy way to identify a picture or find a particular image in google images. This video explains an easy way to search online for an image using that picture.

How to find the name of an image. How to find out if a picture is real or has been altered by finding the website(s) the picture has appeared on. How to search for more information about a picture.

Sometimes I took a photo using my iPhone, and then later on, I wonder how long I have been there at that location, I thought of checking when the last photo was taken, and can tell the time when I arrived, but I found it wasn't easily possible to see what time the photo was taken.

Is there really a way to see the time that photo was taken, be it 1 hour and 20 minutes ago, without using any third party app and without importing the photo to a computer? I thought this might be a simple photo info thing that might be invoked by some easy way?