Amanda Lessner
Letting Go of Golden Hour
photo by Courtney Larson
photo by Alex Eischeid
photo by Sarah Wilkerson
Your life shouldn't have to revolve around golden hour.
We all love those golden-lit sessions, but why should they be our only option? Say goodbye to the limitations of Golden Hour and gain the tools to create vibrant, colorful, and dimensional shots when the sun is at its peak. Expand your shooting hours, add depth and originality to your portfolio, and make your business shine.
COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18
COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18 COURSE LAUNCH EVENT WITH AMANDA LESSNER OCTOBER 3 - OCTOBER 18
INTERACTIVE
Q&A
with Amanda Lessner through
LIMITED RUN
SELF-PACEDCOURSE
available to purchase through
12 MONTHSONGOINGACCESS
to continue studying and learning
12+ MONTHSONGOING ACCESS
to study and learn at your own pace
let's talk about
what makes it different
Anyone can create gorgeous photos during golden hour, but few can also create magic in the intense light of midday.
This course is jam-packed with actionable content on the art and business of hard light: step-by-step guides, shooting exercises, cheat sheets, and even a deep dive into AI masking for easy high-dynamic-range editing. Transform the way you see light and unlock new opportunities for your creativity and your business.
COURSE TYPE
SELF PACED
SKILL TYPE
light, shooting, business
SKILL LEVEL
ANY SKILL LEVEL
here's a look at
what you'll get
Versatile Hard Light Skills and Exercises: What to look for and how to manipulate hard light for vibrance, drama, or depth
Dynamic Style Options: New ideas for varied hard light aesthetics that unlock the full creative potential of midday shooting
Light-Specific Editing Techniques: Quick and effective tips to skillfully refine the color and dynamic range of your hard light photos
Hard Light Workflow for your Business: In-depth tools for planning, scheduling, shooting, and editing hard light client sessions
Expanded Shooting Hours: Practical strategies to shoot stunning images throughout the day, breaking free from the limitations of golden hour
Hard light, which is available for the longest period of the day, offers far more flexibility in terms of scheduling shoots and limitless opportunities to go different directions in style.
check out what's in your classroom
Letting Go of Golden Hour Coursebook
A 5 part guide covering all aspects of hard light photography, covering technical and creative approaches, business angles and opportunities, and tailored editing techniques
Shooting & Editing Videos
From core skills taught on-location with clients in Hawaii to the business of hard light sessions and a powerful array of targeted editing techniques
Hard Light Resource Pack
Midday location scouting worksheets, sample hard light session PDF for clients, practice exercises, and hard light cheat sheets.
NEW HERE? See how our self-paced courses work
by the end of this course,
you'll be able to utilize hard light to its full potential and set your work — and your schedule — free.
I enjoyed the Letting Go of Golden Hour course. I would have appreciated knowing ahead of purchasing what program is used for editing in the videos. I expected Amanda to go over Lightroom, but she uses ACR. I found a lot of the tips and advise to be a refresher to what I learned in my high school photography class, but I did learn a few things. I especially appreciated the editing tips.
I rarely shoot in harsh light – and I always suggest either sunrise or sunset (due to our extreme hot conditions). However, I’ve learnt a great deal in terms of playing with shadows and light and also a great deal from her editing videos. Even if you don’t end up shooting in harsh light you come away with a great deal of “new” knowledge that I haven’t come across before! I have alot of ideas and alot more confidence going out and trying to shoot in harsh light! Thanks again Amanda!
This was the perfect course to take! I try to avoid shooting in midday light, but now I’m excited to embrace it and try new techniques from this course. Living in Southern California, I do a lot of beach sessions and we don’t often get clouds to diffuse any light. Even golden hour can be really harsh, so I’d love to do sessions earlier in the day, but was always worried about harsh contrast and dark shadows. I loved learning new tips and tricks to overcome this. As a professional as well, I really loved the business part of this course. I felt that part was so helpful and a nice little bonus on top of all the other good content! Thank you so much, Amanda! Loved this course and it definitely exceeded my expectations!
This course has been game changing for me. I’m surrounded by bright, harsh light and what I’m learning will really make a difference in my work. Thanks Amanda!
I don’t shoot clients and don’t have a crazy cool beach to work with (I wish) so when I saw this course I really did not think it was for me (plus I do like golden hour lol), but am so grateful I took a chance on it because I haven’t felt this inspired in a really long time. If you think you’re doing justice to your photography by sticking to golden hour, prepare to have your mind blown. I’ve been taking photos for about 7 years, so it’s pretty embarrassing to think about how much I’ve been following the sun, rather than pushing myself to learn how to make the light work for me. Evening light has definitely been my crutch and until now, I didn’t even consider how avoiding midday light might also mean I was missing out on opportunities to push myself creatively. It’s not like I’m new to most of the basic ideas here but she took it places I haven’t seen covered quite like this. I’m overflowing with ideas and could never have guessed I’d get this much out of a workshop on hard light. And, yes I did just order a little disco ball off Amazon.
Wow, such a great in-depth course about shooting in hard light. Most of my family adventures happen during the bright, sunny daylight hours and I now feel much more confident in how to get beautiful, vibrant photos any time of day as well as how to edit them to enhance the colours, light and shadow. Amanda takes the fear factor out of shooting in hard light and celebrates it with actionable tips, behind the scenes videos and beautiful examples.
I am one of those photographers who used golden hour like my safety blanket and only scheduled my sessions in late afternoon or early evening. It’s easy to feel like you’re getting price shopped in this market though because everyone else does the same, and clients can’t always tell the difference between one golden hour family photographer and another. Amanda has given me the courage to try out some new styles and techniques and I have my first morning session with one of my favorite clients this weekend. I’m excited and a little nervous, but I’m taking my cheat sheets with me and even started creating a gobo collection with stuff from home (this part was probably my favorite). I feel good knowing there are actually a LOT of different ways I can work with this light!!! I am really thankful for this course and feel inspired by the ways it could change my business and get me trying new things again like I used to. Thank you so much, Amanda!
I really enjoyed this course! It’s chock full of information on how to take a ‘difficult’ lighting situation and turn it into something wonderful. You’ll walk away feeling more at ease with hard light and ready to take on those bright sunny days. Sadly, here in the PNW, we’re unlikely to see much sun for a while, but I’ll definitely be rereading this at the start of next summer. Thanks, Amanda!
I was in Portland OR a weekend prior to the start of this course. I was in an apple orchard with my daughter, son in law and 14 month old grandson and the afternoon sun at 3:00 was so frustrating to shoot in! I flew home that Sunday (to Ohio) and the following week this course started. I signed up on the spot. I learned so much from Amanda! I have watched most of it twice already and feel much less intimidated by the sun now. She explains everything so well and her tips are so useful. ironically my grandson was wearing sunglasses the whole time which I didn’t like but now I realize it helped with the photos so much! I highly recommend this course to anyone. Amanda is a great teacher. I hope she does more classes in the future!
Wow! All I can say is wow! The amount of information and tools Amanda presented in just this course was astounding! She can so many actionable ways to improve my photography, in both high sunlight AND other shooting scenarios. I love how well rounded this course was and can’t wait to start applying the things I have learned!
What an amazing and inspiring course! Take it if you are always, like me, hesitant to work during the day in bright sunshine. Until now, I was always kind of avoiding working during those beautiful sunshine hours. Amanda has changed that belief for me for once and for all. I am beyond thankful for that! Amanda really covers it all: she tells you precisely what steps to take when working in full sunshine, she offers valuable business advice and tips on client communication and location scouting and she offers amazing tricks on angles and perspectives and useful props. She also shows you step by step how to edit hard light pictures. Also, her advice on equipment was SO very valuable to me! All her wisdom is making my photography life so much easier as well as more inspired and opens up many business opportunities! I just love her course and the confidence it gave me to work with clients in the future in hard light scenarios. I am big time inspired for new projects, for client sessions and fun time pics with my kids. Mahalo Amanda for this amazing course and such a confident and professional perspective on working with hard light!!
Whether you are in business or a hobbyist photographer like me, this course will open up SO many more photography opportunities for you! Amanda shares so much information (and provides amazing cheat sheets!) about how to shoot in hard light, how to location scout for middle of the day shoots and editing techniques to enhance your photos. I warn you though – this course will also make you want to go and visit Hawaii!!
For years I was scared of bright sun, but after only the first few lessons I was already inspired and itching to get outside with my camera. I’m excited to see where the knowledge gained in this course is going to take me. Thank you Amanda!
This class is incredible. As a wedding photographer, I don’t always have control of the day’s timeline and often have to take portraits in “hard light”, which usually frustrates me. So this class was an inspiration – maybe I need to embrace tricky lighting rather than complain about it. I especially loved Amanda’s creativity suggestions. I’m photographing a wedding this afternoon (on a REALLY bright sunny day) and I can’t wait to incorporate some of these ideas. THANK YOU AMANDA!
Thank you for such a kind review! I’m so glad to hear that you were inspired by the course and have some new ideas to try out at your wedding this afternoon! Mahalo!
This is the second time I’ve had the opportunity to learn about photography from Amanda. This course exceeded my expectations! We know that Amanda is an amazing photographer, but the way that she effortlessly controls and utilizes the light in her images is incredible! My favorite part of the course were the exercises at the end of a lesson. She gives you specific things to try and provides feedback on uploaded images. I loved that she provided so much direction in her materials. It felt like she was giving a one-on-one lesson. Hard light is very intimidating, but not being boud to golden hour is so important! Amanda is a natural teacher and a skilled photographer. Loved this course so much!
Thank you so much for the awesome review, Jenelle! I’m thrilled you loved the course and am honored to have you as a repeat student!
This looks appealing, but what supplemental light tools are needed? Off camera flash? Reflectors?
Aloha Dawn, I’m glad the course looks useful to you!
To answer your question, no supplemental light tools are needed to learn from this course. I discuss the use of OCF and pop-up reflectors, but the majority of the course focuses on using elements already in the environment to either soften or embrace hard light.