Morning Light - Why is it so Good?

You may have heard of the Golden hour. This is a short time around sunrise and sunset. The angle of the light is low and creates shadows and on water - reflections- that are useful to photograph with. As it is light at a low angle, it also reveals shape and texture and often the colour is also beautiful.

The good photographic light lasts a little past this and slowly (or fast if you have a lot to photograph) changes till either side of mid day, you may as well have a siesta! There are some exceptions of course - like if you have created side lighting by stopping the top light influencing the subject.

Winter light also is low in the sky so it can be still ok in the middle of the day if you take care with your camera angles.

Being able to isolate your subject by placing a shadow behind it simplifies the image. Keep in mind the KIS principal - Keep it Simple!

With low light angles and photographing toward the sun, you need to be aware of flare (sun hitting the lens). It can look great (see photo) or it can ruin a photo if the flare covers your main subject.

The light as it gets towards mid day often creates many small shadows under the subject as well as having lots of splotches of intense light. It makes it very hard to easily see the subject

You can see it yourself because you have binocular vision and your brain is very good at interpreting what it sees. However, once you have only one eye (a lens) and it is going on a 2 dimensional substrate, you need to use shadows correctly to be able to see your subject properly.

A way to test a scene is to squint your eyes, this will reveal a lot of conflicts! If it looks good doing this, there is a chance you may get a good photo.