[flippedgazelle]

I think you mean the blue hour. This is the hour before sunrise and after sunset when the sky is a very dreamy kind of midnight blue color, which is excellent for nighttime long exposures. Here's an example of a photo taken during it:

That's a lovely shot, sir, and a fine example!

[Tuner571]

Magic hour is the time that the sun has just dipped below the horizon bathing everything in a beautiful even light. It is one of my favorite times to shoot as with many other photographers.

[Pentaxie]

The “magic hour” is a concept more than a time. IMO, it is the time the light comes from near the horizon, filtered through the most possible amount of atmosphere which gives every thing a warm glow to an almost a dazzling or 3D effect one can possibly see. In short, it has to do with the kind of light and the approximate time this light incidence can happen.

Someone mentioned mentioned before, "There are 2 kinds of “magic hour”. The 2 kinds are the “Golden Hour” and the “Blue Hour”. Each happens 2 times a day (assuming the sky is not clouded over) with the golden hour just after sunrise and before sunset with the blue hour just the opposite."

For me, the magic hour occurs almost an hour before sunrise and/or sundown.
The light is going to change continually as you get closer to the sunrise/sunset timing.

[jct us101]

I forgot about the golden hour, but I think a lot of people don't really pay attention to it considering that it's early, and well who likes to get up early?

There's also a blue hour just before sunrise too though.

[bymy141]

The thing I find interesting is that the AM and PM magic hours have a slightly different color or feel.

Morning and afternoon differ in temperature and moisture.
Hot surfaces, heathed by the sun creating turmoil.
The turmoil and the moisture in the air will blur long distance pictures.
Moisture in the upper athmosphere layers bleaks the blue colors.

The color of the light is the same, but yes, you are right, the feel is different.

- Bert

[ventured]

The thing I find interesting is that the AM and PM magic hours have a slightly different color or feel.

Much to do with air temperature, and haze build up during the day. Morning, cool air warming, evening, warm cooloing down.

[RioRico]

Morning and afternoon differ in temperature and moisture.
Hot surfaces, heathed by the sun creating turmoil.
The turmoil and the moisture in the air will blur long distance pictures.
Moisture in the upper athmosphere layers bleaks the blue colors.

How much are qualities of the 'magic hours' dependent on certain weather conditions in certain latitudes? What are those qualities somewhere very dry and clear, and consistently extremely hot or extremely cold? Somewhere with air that remains consistently humid and/or filled with particulates?

I remember days on Kauai where the morning 'golden hour' lasted until almost noon, and days in Kansas in mid-winter or the Mohave Desert in mid-summer with no magic hours at all. Not to mention Los Angeles under thick blankets of smoke and smog, with hardly any light at all; and at 13,000 feet in the White Mtns on the California-Nevada line, east of the High Sierras, with little atmosphere to modulate the light.

[ventured]

I find a similar tone to the air when the sun peeks through storm clouds. A nice golden hue. Probably due to similar atmospheric filtering through the clouds.

[Mallee Boy]

Its all been said...and very well too. The only thing I would add is that it is a generalisation to refer to "Golden" or "Blue" hour/light and that as Rico has pointed out, it will change dependant on the many atmospheric variables.

Dont be dis-appointed if you get up early and sit in the dark waiting for sunrise.....only for a dull lifeless sky to appear we've all been there done that, its just a part of the joy of photography.

I read a book a long time ago by a well known Lonely Planet photographer who noted the many fruitless visits to the same sight looking for "that light" and "that shot", the moral of the story being dont expect to rock up to a site and expect to snap off a prize winning shot and walk away all in one hour.....sometimes you can be lucky, but rarely.

Enjoy the process, pre-dawn & dawn is the best part of the day.

[bymy141]

Its all been said...and very well too. The only thing I would add is that it is a generalisation to refer to "Golden" or "Blue" hour/light and that as Rico has pointed out, it will change dependant on the many atmospheric variables.

Dont be dis-appointed if you get up early and sit in the dark waiting for sunrise.....only for a dull lifeless sky to appear we've all been there done that, its just a part of the joy of photography.

I read a book a long time ago by a well known Lonely Planet photographer who noted the many fruitless visits to the same sight looking for "that light" and "that shot", the moral of the story being dont expect to rock up to a site and expect to snap off a prize winning shot and walk away all in one hour.....sometimes you can be lucky, but rarely.

Enjoy the process, pre-dawn & dawn is the best part of the day.

Agree, you need to be lucky.
Sometimes you get lucky.....



- Bert

[Mallee Boy]

WOW! Bert...thats a WOW!! WOW!!!

which translates to a triple Wow....

Fantastic shot. Congratulations.
Thats what makes fumbling around in the dark all worth while.
Cheers
Grant

[jct us101]

So there's a difference between the blue hour and the golden hour, but they both happen at the same time, at least in the morning? I think that I'm missing something here, because that doesn't quite much make sense, and they're both called the magic hour? Now that's confusing.

[Barnster]

Agree, you need to be lucky.
Sometimes you get lucky.....



- Bert

Bert,must I say this image is bloody sensational.It is a perfect example of 'Magic Hour'.

[bymy141]

Bert,must I say this image is bloody sensational.It is a perfect example of 'Magic Hour'.

Thanks.

It was taken around 45 minutes after sunrise, 06:15 am.

The location is the Busanga Plains, Zambia, in the north of the Kafue NP.
Despite the location it was very cold that morning, frost on the grass.
Time of the year was the dry season, but on the plains there is still a lot of water under the grass. They call it floating grass over there.
The cold temperature and the water created that mist.

I was very lucky, got out of my tent and thought WOW! Where is that camera!
The Lechwe antillopes where right there in front of us in the mist.

See here the results.

- Bert

PS This was made in Cambodia the other month, 07:15 am:



Or an evening shot with my 10-17mm fisheye on the Nile river:

[Marc Sabatella]

So there's a difference between the blue hour and the golden hour, but they both happen at the same time, at least in the morning?

They*don't* happen at the same time. Blue light happens while the sun is below the horizon (before dawn, after sunset). Orange light happens while the sun is still above the horizon (after dawn, before sunset).

The term magic hour usually refers to period of orange light.