Five Habits for Better Dawn Photography

The best light of the day lasts a few minutes, and it rarely waits for you to find your tripod. These are the habits that make those minutes count.

Scout the evening before

Walk the location in daylight, decide where the sun will rise and pick two or three compositions. At 5 a.m. you want to be setting up, not wandering.

Arrive before the colour

The pre-dawn blue hour is often softer and more interesting than the sunrise itself. Be in position early and shoot through the whole sequence.

Look behind you

While everyone faces the sun, the light is painting the opposite hills. Turn around regularly.

Protect the highlights

Expose for the brightest part of the sky and recover the shadows later. Blown highlights cannot be rescued.

Stay after the show

Many of the quietest, most atmospheric frames arrive ten minutes after everyone else has packed up.