Often, in a shoot you have just a few minutes to get the shots you want. Like in events, the money shot is often the kiss, the handshake, the moment the document is signed or the ribbon is cut, and so on.

And often, it is the light. Light that spends a few minutes between uselessly dark and uninterestingly bright. Those are your minutes, so be ready!

Like here, in a shoot of a bike race that started at dawn:

Riders Ready to Roll

Dawn (and later, dusk) means a few minutes between dark and light. And those minutes are great since they have blue skies with enough colour, and all the other colours are saturated too.

Saturated means “not mixed with white”, after all.

OPP Bikes Set Off

The combination of the primary colours red, green and blue makes these images visually interesting. So when shooting an event:

• Set up your camera early
• Find the right viewpoint early, too
• See if you can find red and green elements to your image
• Then, be ready to pounce during those few valuable minutes.

And your results will be cool.

“Yes but I want to shoot like that all day”. Well, then learn how to use flash and modifiers. But you will have a much easier time when you use – and often have no alternative but to use – those few valuable golden minutes between light and dark.

Endnote: There is still space on our all-day The Art of Nude Photography Workshop on Sunday, but be quick.