My First Golden Hour Shoot and Everything I Got Wrong

Spoiler: some of it looked incredible. A lot of it looked like garbage. Here's what actually happened.

The Setup

I got there about 40 minutes before sunrise, which in hindsight was the right call because I needed time to find a decent launch spot that wasn't in the mud. The reservoir has a gravel pull-off area on the north side which worked fine. Batteries were fully charged the night before, had my ND filters in my bag (more on those in a second), and I'd downloaded the offline maps in DJI Fly so I wasn't dependent on cell signal out there.

What I did NOT do was check the dew point. My controller screen had a thin film of condensation on it for the first 15 minutes and it was a little stressful honestly. Lesson learned for next time.

Camera Settings — Where I Started vs. Where I Ended Up

I went in planning to shoot in manual mode with D-Log M because I'd watched probably a dozen YouTube videos about shooting flat profiles for more editing flexibility. In theory, great idea. In practice, my first 40 shots at golden hour looked like a washed-out nightmare and I completely panicked.

Here's what I started with: ISO 100, f/2.8, shutter at 1/200. I had a circular polarizer on because I thought it would help with the water reflections. It did help with the reflections but it was also eating like 1.5 to 2 stops of light and at that point in the morning I just didn't have enough to work with. The images were underexposed and honestly just flat in a bad way, not in a "great latitude for editing" way.

I swapped to my ND4 and bumped ISO to 400, slowed shutter to 1/100, and things started looking a lot more usable. The water had a slightly silkier look to it which I actually liked more than the frozen-sharp version. I think for early morning over water, slower shutter with a lighter ND is probably the move rather than stacking filters when the light is already low.

I kept D-Log M on because I'd already committed mentally, but next time I think I'll just start in Normal color profile when the light is tricky and switch once the sun is properly up and I have more exposure headroom.

Composition Stuff I Tried

I've been reading a bit about aerial composition and I wanted to try a few things deliberately rather than just hovering and pressing the shutter button like I normally do.

The one that worked best was flying out over the water and getting the drone low — like 30 feet or so — and looking back toward the shoreline with the tree line and the sunrise behind it. Having a strong foreground with the water texture right below the lens and then the tree line and sky in the background gave the shots actual depth. That was genuinely the best set of photos from the whole morning.

I also tried the classic "straight down over the reflection" thing and honestly it was fine but it felt like something I've seen a thousand times already. I'll probably try it again when there's more color in the sky but that morning the reflection was mostly pale yellow and didn't pop the way I hoped.

One thing I completely forgot to do was use the grid overlay on the screen to actually line up my horizon. Multiple shots have a slightly tilted horizon. Not a lot, maybe 1-2 degrees, but enough that I had to fix them all in Lightroom. Which I could do, it just would have been easier to get it right in the field.

The Editing Side

I use Lightroom Classic and I'm still pretty basic with it. For the D-Log M files I applied a LUT first — I bought a cheap pack online for like $12 that's specifically for DJI D-Log M — and then worked from there. The LUT got me most of the way to a usable color grade and then I adjusted whites, highlights, and shadows manually from there.

The shots I'm happiest with ended up needing a slight warmth boost (orange and yellow in the HSL panel), a little dehaze to add some contrast to the distant treeline, and then some sharpening with masking cranked up so I wasn't adding grain to the sky. Pretty basic workflow but it worked.

The underexposed ones from the beginning of the session I tried to rescue and some of them are okay but there's definitely some noise in the shadows that I can't fully get rid of. My sensor isn't huge so I need to just not underexpose if I can help it. I'd rather clip a highlight slightly and deal with that than try to lift murky shadows.

What I'd Do Differently

Honestly a lot, but that's fine. This was really my first intentional shoot and I came home with maybe 8-10 images I'm actually happy with out of probably 150 frames, which I think is not terrible for a beginner.

The main things:

• Check weather conditions more carefully — not just wind and rain but dew point and humidity, especially for early morning shoots near water
• For low light golden hour, don't stack filters and don't start with D-Log M until you have confident exposure dialed in first
• Turn on the grid overlay and actually use it instead of trying to eyeball horizon level
• Fly lower more often — my best shots were all under 100 feet and a lot of my boring shots were high up where everything just looks like a flat map
• Bring a small towel for the controller screen if there's any chance of condensation

I'm already planning my next shoot for next weekend. There's an old stone bridge about 45 minutes away that I've had my eye on and I want to catch it in overcast light rather than golden hour, which I've read can be really good for bringing out texture and detail without harsh shadows. We'll see how that goes.

If you're also just getting into aerial photography and you've got tips on filter choices for mixed lighting conditions I'd genuinely love to hear them. Still figuring this all out.