The last hour of the day is commonly referred to as golden hour.  It can be used to create a beautiful glowy photo.  Or if used incorrectly, the image can be filled with lots of white blown-out highlights.  So, how do you do a photo shoot at golden hour?

If you don’t have anything to filter the light (trees or a building), you’ll need to use your camera angle.

I angled my camera down on the sitting family for the first few photos.  If I would have been shooting at eye-level, there would be too much sun behind them and you would not be able to see the details of their faces.

Afterward, when they were standing, I had to make sure the sun was behind them and slightly to the side.  I wouldn’t be able to shoot down on them as they are standing, so make sure the sun is slightly to the side keeps the details from being blown out.

If you look on the ground at their feet, you can see how the shadow is falling in a diagonal way.  It does create a little bit of highlight on the side of their faces, but you can maintain so much more detail in photo if the sun isn’t directly behind the subjects.