Golden Hour Filter

In the photography world, golden hour is that famous window of time just before sunset or just after sunrise. It’s popular because it will turn your photos to gold — both metaphorically and literally. Images warm up and glisten with dimension. Tones are even so there are no awkward shadows across faces. The colors in the sky become vibrant. But if you missed it, no worries — Luminar offers a filter called ‘Golden Hour’ that can help you recreate this glowing effect!

Golden Hour for Landscapes

Using a Golden Hour filter is different than simply warming up the temperature on your photo. It will automatically add a golden hue and dimension to only the areas that would naturally appear warmer in during that time window. For example, if you load a photo of a landscape with a body of water, notice that the water will stay blue, and only the warm tones will take on a glowing effect. The same goes for blue skies!

To add a Golden Hour filter simply press the ‘+’ to the right of ‘Filters’ and select it from the list of options. You’ll notice that you can control the amount with a slider, as well as the degree of saturation until you get the exact effect you’re looking for.

Before • After

Golden Hour for Portraits

You can apply a Golden Hour filter the same way to portraits as you would for landscapes, as explained above. This option works best on portraits taken outside.

After applying this filter people will look more tanned and illuminated, with golden accents in their hair. Eye colours can also pop with this filter, especially for lighter toned iris’s! And keep in mind, if a certain tone is too strong, simply add an ‘HSL Filter’ and you can control each color separately afterwards.

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