Outdoor Photography How To

There's something truly magical about capturing a spectacular Golden Hour photo but capturing this epic moment in time can be more difficult than it sounds. Getting the light exactly right is one of the biggest challenges we face when shooting a sunrise and it's easy to fall short for a number of reasons.

The soft, warm light we all want can be comprised by a number of factors, including poor weather, uncooperative clouds, or a less-than ideal vantage point that makes accurate exposures difficult to achieve. Under these conditions you're often left with harsh shadows and unflattering light.

But what if we told you that there's an affordable accessory that solves these challenges so you can easily capture the beautiful photos that eluded you in the past? Well there is, and it's known as a "reverse graduated" lens filter. It's super easy to use and is very effective for turning an ordinary image into an extraordinary one.

Instructor Richard Brockwell is an accomplished pro who says, "I love to explore and create new ways to capture amazing landscape images," and in barely five minutes he explains why the reverse graduated is one of his favorite Golden-Hour accessories for getting the job done to perfection. As he says, "it' like witnessing a work of art unfold right before your eyes."

Unlike like a conventional graduated filter that's dark at the top and gets progressively brighter towards the bottom, the reverse grad works differently. Hence, it's the perfect option for capturing sunrise and sunset photos with perfectly balanced tones. Just mount it to the filter holder on your lens, adjust  it up or downs as necessary, and shoot away with confidence.

The reverse graduated filter is so easy to explain that we'll leave it up to Brockwell to demonstrate the simple technique. He provides the perfect example of a Golden-Hour seascape to illustrate the effect—with only a portion of the shot covered by the filter. And the difference is really obvious

So the next time you awake early and arrive on location before the sun peaks above the horizon, make sure there's a reverse graduated filter in your bag. Breathtaking images are sure to follow. Brockwell's instructional YouTube channel is full of out-side-the-box techniques like this one, so be sure to pay a visit.

On a related note, be sure to watch the earlier tutorial we featured with a post-processing expert who demonstrates a Lightroom technique for transforming boring landscape photographs into spectacular shots with a beautiful, glowing sunset effect.