If your outdoor shots aren’t turning out how you want, the problem might not be your camera settings. It could be your timing.
Coming to you from Jason Row Photography, this insightful video breaks down why dawn is the best time to shoot landscapes and how you can make the most of it. The light at sunrise is warmer, shadows are softer, and the atmosphere feels more tranquil. Even on overcast days, the early hours offer a unique stillness that enhances composition. Mist, fog, and dew often appear at this time, adding layers of texture. Locations that become packed with tourists later in the day are empty in the morning, giving you more freedom to work without distractions.
Aside from lighting, shooting early maximizes your time. Arriving before sunrise lets you scout compositions, set up, and experiment without feeling rushed. As the sun rises and conditions change, you can adapt and capture different moods. Planning is key. Checking weather forecasts helps but isn’t always reliable. The best way to know if the light will be good is to go out and see for yourself. Using apps like PhotoPills can help predict sunrise direction and light movement, giving you an advantage when planning your shots.
Getting up early isn’t always easy, but a few tricks can help. Setting multiple alarms and placing them across the room forces you to get out of bed. Dressing in layers ensures you stay comfortable, whether it’s cold before dawn or heating up after sunrise. If motivation is an issue, making plans with a friend can help. Committing to meet someone at a location makes it harder to skip the shoot. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Row.
I hate alarm clocks. I mean I really despise being woken out my sleep before my body has naturally had enough. But I've heard this advice about shooting sunrise a million times before, so in the search for better photographs, I've set the darn thing a few times. Maybe ten at the most. I head out in the dark, set up my camera, and wait. And then when the sun finally crosses above the horizon, whammm... it hits with harsh light that blasts detail out of highlights and turns the rock canyons around here a bright yellow, while shadows are nearly black. Sunrise is no guarantee of soft light and moderate contrast.
If there are no clouds in the sky, I can expect light to be harsh, no matter the time of day. Clouds are the key; more important in my opinion than time of day. The best landscape shooting conditions occur for me when partial clouds sit between the sun and the subject, acting like a large studio softbox. And that can happen at any time of day. In fact, the build-up of clouds over the mountains is more likely to occur in the late afternoon. I would imagine from the author's perspective along the coast of England, and looking at some of his images, that sunrise is more likely to produce misty or hazy conditions out over the water which diffuses the light, so I can appreciate his fondness for sunrise. At much higher and drier elevations in Colorado, sunrise is quite often a harsh blast of light. Either way, it's the quality of light to watch for. I've made a couple decent images at sunrise, and plenty of awful ones too.
Nice article