Early Morning Light

Leslie

Leslie

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Leslie
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On my way into work this morning I was admiring the early morning light and the way it gave everything a nice soft orange/yellow colour. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me but it got me wondering, what is it that makes the early morning light that colour? Is there some scientific reason for it?
 
The sun has to go through a lot more of the atmosphere to get to the subject and so the air changes the colour more than if it was straight overhead. Have an internet search on golden hour or magic hour. It can be longer than an hour too. The advantage of this time of year is that the magic hour, especially in the morning, is at a much more social time.
 
As the day progresses there is more dust and smoke in the atmosphere which is why sunsets tend to be redder.

Early morning is my favourite time for photography, great light and not too many people around to ask daft questions and get in the way.

When asked I always tell people that the most useful photographic accessory is an alarm clock;)
 
The difference between morning and evening, and the reason morning light is often preferred, is that dust and heat disturbance settles overnight. So you get the colour and texture, without the haze.

Edit: Crossed post with gm43
 
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in the day time the sun is over head so the light only has a relatively thin portion of atmosphere to get through to reach the ground. at the start and end of the day the sun is lower on the horizon meaning the light has much more atmosphere to travel through. at these times the light is scattered as it hits much more particles like dust and whatever before it reaches us. red light, which is the end of the visible light spectrum, for whatever reason makes it the furthest so the light we get is much more red than any other colour, giving us light which we call the golden hour

im not a physicist but i did once see a lecture on youtube which covered the subject and explained it much better and clearer than i have

if conditions are correct you can actually get a red rainbow
i found the lecture... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9iB2PALVeY

yes i watched a 50 min lecture about rainbows.
understanding the world around you can make even a simple thing like a rainbow so much more beautiful.
 
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Thanks for all the explanations. Like a lot of things it makes perfect sense once someone explains it!
 
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