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Worst time of day to photograph outdoors?

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GregDunbar

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We all know that midday (sun directly overhead) is considered the worst time of day to shoot outdoors with natural light, and that the golden hours and the time leading up to the golden hours are considered the best .

My question is, how many hours before solar noon (solar noon = sun directly overhead 90 degrees) and how many hours after solar noon is it considered acceptable to shoot?

TL,DR: I want to know the duration of "high noon" where it's horrible to shoot. 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours (with solar noon in the middle of each?) Because of course that bad lighting is not just horrible at 1:06pm (solar noon time for EST today)
 
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Great photos can be taken in any light. One just has to know how to use it. Look at the great photos and paintings in any good art museum and you'll see that.
 
There certainly is no hard and fast rule for multiple reasons. Time of year plays a huge part in how low in the sky the sun is at a certain time of day. Cloud cover can yield beatiful midday light and cause quite poor light during the 'Golden Hour.' Even on a cloudless day at noon nice light can be found in open shade especially if you have a reflector to further shape the light. Landscape scenes tend to be most interesting (to me) with the sun very low in the sky, during the first or last hour of daylight but there are certainly exceptions.
 
GregDunbar said:
We all know that midday (sun directly overhead) is considered the worst time of day to shoot outdoors with natural light, and that the golden hours and the time leading up to the golden hours are considered the best .
My question is, how many hours before solar noon (solar noon = sun directly overhead 90 degrees) and how many hours after solar noon is it considered acceptable to shoot?

TL,DR: I want to know the duration of "high noon" where it's horrible to shoot. 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours (with solar noon in the middle of each?) Because of course that bad lighting is not just horrible at 1:06pm (solar noon time for EST today)
Click to expand...
 
The noon Sun is only directly overhead (90 degrees) at the Equator. Very crudely the angle decreases with latitude everywhere else and varies by season. There are lots of Sun position apps out there which will tell you the exact angle for any latitude and time.
 
GregDunbar said:
We all know that midday (sun directly overhead) is considered the worst time of day to shoot outdoors with natural light, and that the golden hours and the time leading up to the golden hours are considered the best .
My question is, how many hours before solar noon (solar noon = sun directly overhead 90 degrees) and how many hours after solar noon is it considered acceptable to shoot?

TL,DR: I want to know the duration of "high noon" where it's horrible to shoot. 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours (with solar noon in the middle of each?) Because of course that bad lighting is not just horrible at 1:06pm (solar noon time for EST today)
Click to expand...
Anytime is "acceptable" to shoot. It just depends on what you are doing and your skill level. It also depends on the cloud cover, if you have access to open shade, if you are using a strobe and what part of the world you are shooting in and the time of year. Sunrise in Jamaica comes up like lightning; sky glow in St. Petersburg in the summer can be fairly bright at 2 a.m.

But for golden hours, I like just before sunrise to about 45 minutes afterwards and 15 minutes before sunset to about 45 minutes after sunset for landscapes and architecture and other "stuff."





















--
photojournalist
http://craighartley.zenfolio.com/
 
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GregDunbar said:
We all know that midday (sun directly overhead) is considered the worst time of day to shoot outdoors with natural light, and that the golden hours and the time leading up to the golden hours are considered the best .
My question is, how many hours before solar noon (solar noon = sun directly overhead 90 degrees) and how many hours after solar noon is it considered acceptable to shoot?

TL,DR: I want to know the duration of "high noon" where it's horrible to shoot. 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours (with solar noon in the middle of each?) Because of course that bad lighting is not just horrible at 1:06pm (solar noon time for EST today)
Click to expand...
Today at 2.30 pm at Latitude 40N :



e9af8729c29f40f3b6cc93f73a5ef48c.jpg



Longitude 124 W
 
GregDunbar said:
We all know that midday (sun directly overhead) is considered the worst time of day to shoot outdoors with natural light, and that the golden hours and the time leading up to the golden hours are considered the best .
My question is, how many hours before solar noon (solar noon = sun directly overhead 90 degrees) and how many hours after solar noon is it considered acceptable to shoot?

TL,DR: I want to know the duration of "high noon" where it's horrible to shoot. 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours (with solar noon in the middle of each?) Because of course that bad lighting is not just horrible at 1:06pm (solar noon time for EST today)
Click to expand...
The worst time of the day is when the light is not right for the shot. When the light is right for the shot, there is no worst time of the day.

The so-called golden hour was established in b/w film days. Its virtue was that it made the shadows more significant and more interesting. With a b/w photo, shadows played a far more prominent role than they do with digital color photography. As a result, the so-called golden hour is far less important now than it was then. It's another one of those photographic notions whose value is primarily historic but continues to be promoted through the inertia of conventional wisdom.

The value of the so-called golden hour with digital color photography is that its color casts can be quite beautiful – provided, of course, that you don't allow some foolish use of Auto WB to destroy them. Clearly such color casts were not of significance with b/w photography.

But such color casts are only one of a large number of lighting colorations that can be exploited for a truly fine image. If long shadows are not a big deal for the scene you're shooting, good lighting can be had any time of the day.

Shooting midday can produce some wonderful shots. But the high sun can produce shadowed portions of the scene that create significant scene DR problems. A proper exposure is important when this is the case. But, of course, a proper exposure is always important and significant scene DR problems can arise just as often at any time of the day.

The worst time of the day to photograph outdoors is that time your unable to get outdoors.

--
gollywop
http://g4.img-dpreview.com/D8A95C7DB3724EC094214B212FB1F2AF.jpg
 
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learn how to shoot in all types of light instead of worrying about timezones for optimum light, you'll be a much better photographer for it and much more prepared for anything.
 
Been shooting for over 45 years and I've not yet found a bad time to enjoy my hobby.
 
steephill said:
The noon Sun is only directly overhead (90 degrees) at the Equator. Very crudely the angle decreases with latitude everywhere else and varies by season. There are lots of Sun position apps out there which will tell you the exact angle for any latitude and time.
Click to expand...
No. It is directly overhead at noon on the equator only two days a year - just like everywhere else between the two tropics. On the tropics it's directly overhead at noon only one day a year.
 
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GregDunbar said:
We all know that midday (sun directly overhead) is considered the worst time of day to shoot outdoors with natural light, and that the golden hours and the time leading up to the golden hours are considered the best .
My question is, how many hours before solar noon (solar noon = sun directly overhead 90 degrees) and how many hours after solar noon is it considered acceptable to shoot?

TL,DR: I want to know the duration of "high noon" where it's horrible to shoot. 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours (with solar noon in the middle of each?) Because of course that bad lighting is not just horrible at 1:06pm (solar noon time for EST today)
Click to expand...
Are you aware of the fact that Earth is almost a ball and sun light approaches us at different angle based on where we are (and more importantly: the date)? :]
Tomorrow at noon check if sun is really directly above your head. E.g. in US this will only happen in Hawaii. :)

As such, the question is irrelevant. You should simply ask about the angle of incidence and what I would answer is: that depends on what you need. :P

A popular "golden hour calculator": http://www.golden-hour.com/ defines golden hour as the time when sun elevation is between 0 and 6*. This is a very safe approach. I find pictures to be "red enough" easily at 10*.
 
GregDunbar said:
We all know that midday (sun directly overhead) is considered the worst time of day to shoot outdoors with natural light, and that the golden hours and the time leading up to the golden hours are considered the best .
My question is, how many hours before solar noon (solar noon = sun directly overhead 90 degrees) and how many hours after solar noon is it considered acceptable to shoot?

TL,DR: I want to know the duration of "high noon" where it's horrible to shoot. 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours (with solar noon in the middle of each?) Because of course that bad lighting is not just horrible at 1:06pm (solar noon time for EST today)
Click to expand...
You can get great shots at any time of the day. However, your noon shots won't look like your sunrise shots.
 
GregDunbar said:
We all know that midday (sun directly overhead) is considered the worst time of day to shoot outdoors with natural light, and that the golden hours and the time leading up to the golden hours are considered the best .
My question is, how many hours before solar noon (solar noon = sun directly overhead 90 degrees) and how many hours after solar noon is it considered acceptable to shoot?

TL,DR: I want to know the duration of "high noon" where it's horrible to shoot. 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hours, 4 hours (with solar noon in the middle of each?) Because of course that bad lighting is not just horrible at 1:06pm (solar noon time for EST today)
Click to expand...
You are looking for exactitude where it does not exist. Any time of the day is acceptable for photography depending upon what effect you are seeking. Conversely, any time is unacceptable if the effect you are seeking is not possible in the light that you have.

Do you want us to tell you that at 10:46 you will get good lighting and at 10:47 your good lighting will disappear. Can't be done.

I do agree w one responder who suggested that astrophotography at noon will not give you good results.

--
Don
 
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