Faking “Magic Hour” in Aperture

One of the earliest things a Photographer learns about Landscape photography is that the best time to get the most dramatic landscape shots is the hour before sunrise and sunset. However, that’s not always practical when you’re in a spot for example and won’t be there again, or if it’s a public park with limited opening hours. Of course, the proper light really does make a huge difference and if you really do want the effect the only way to get it is to shoot it at the right time, but still I thought I’d have a go and see if I could fake it in Aperture.

Now, the obvious thing to do would be to adjust the white balance and add warmth. However,  there’s a lot more to it than that. I spent some time carefully analyzing magic hour shots to see if I could identify the recipe. There is an added warmth but it’s really only in the highlights, where the light is. So to achieve that effect I started with the curves tool and added some red in the highlight portion of the image and reduced the blue. I also added a little overall warmth using the white balance and added a little more blue in the shadow areas using the curves.

This is the short version mind you. I went through 5 different versions before I finally reached a version I was happy with. I kept saving it as a preset to try out on other images to see if it was working

This kind of got me in the ballpark but it wasn’t enough. Another part of the recipe is strong dark shadows. I played with the contrast, exposure and contrast sliders till I achieved the desired effect. Here’s the results of my experiment….

Before:

After:

It’s not perfect by any means, but It was an interesting experiment. If you want to try it yourself, you’ll find the link to download the preset below. Enjoy, and let us know how you got on in the comments.

(Note, you may need to adjust the exposure of your image after applying the preset if it looks too dark)

More on this topic:

1. Using Curves to Add Warmth to an Image – Plus Bonus Preset !
2. Preset: Brownify
3. Adjustment Preset – Fake Polarizer
4. A christmas Preset: Winter Chill
5. Preset: Art Print Red, plus a bonus tutorial!