I'm sure everyone who follows natural light photography in any capacity is well aware of the magical golden hour- that more like 20 minutes around sunset when this sun is at that just right height in the sky and starting to initiate the incredible colors that make sunsets so enjoyable.
I have to admit though that the colors aren't my favourite part of golden hour- the sunbeams are. The pictures below I'm sure will show you why. Not all of these images were taken during golden hour, but that is the easiest time to capture this style of image around here, at least in the summer time. Winter, on the few days we get sun, allow for more time for capturing these types of images because the sun doesn't get nearly as high in the sky. Three of these images weren't captured during golden hour. Can you pick them out? Well- two were at sunrise, but that's pretty much morning golden hour, so those two don't count :)
These images were all captures between f1.8- f9 with various lenses, but almost all with Nikon D750's. The narrower the f-stop, the sharper the beams of light, for the most part. But also, the closer your subjects are together, the more they act like they are your narrower f-stop and the sharper your sunbeams end up being :)
