why is morning sunlight “softer” than afternoon light even uf the sun is at the same angle in sky?

2.33K views

Like let’s assume 10am and 6pm are the same relative angles of sun in the sky- why isn’t the lighting identical warmth in photos?

In: Physics

15 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It is the same temperature and intensity. When shooting a movie you often shoot mornings using evening light, and vice versa, if the schedule requires it. We call it the golden hour.

What difference you see is more influenced by your cultural and social expectations, and your mood, more than actual atmospheric effect.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The light is the same, but different things may be going on around YOU.

1. the dew or fog from a cold evening is evaporating in the morning, but is not doing the reverse in the afternoon. You can see this in the extreme in places that have “foggy mornings”, but not foggy afternoons/dusk. That’s gonna affect light, but this impact will be variable depending on where you are.
2. If you live in nature (like I do) you can tell a movie scene shot in nature is being shot in the wrong part of the day because the plant life will be wrongly aligned with the light – lots of things in nature align or hide from the morning light. This will affect the “vibe” of what you’re looking at in ways you may not be conscious of.
3. anything that dissipates in the air at night and accumulates in the day is going to impact things – smog most notably, especially in urban areas.
4. weather patterns move moisture based on accumulated heat which is different at different times of day. This is similar to number 1, but will be very different in different geographies and different alignments to sunrise/sunset.

Anonymous 0 Comments

To clear up a misconception, the morning is going to be cooler than the evening even if the sun is the same brightness. The earth is a giant rock and when you heat a rock up it will stay warm for a while. A rock that’s been sunbathing all day is going to be hotter than a rock that has had a whole night to chill off.

Imagine you have a pot of water on a gas stove, and you gradually crank up the gas until it’s at full blast. Then you gradually crank the gas down until its off. Even though the gas is off, the water will still be warm for some time, because it takes time for the heat to escape.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Most simply put, no matter where you are, the air is likely to be cooler in be morning; meaning that the light, which doesn’t change, travels through a more densely packed atoms that filter or scatter the higher red frequencies of light. In the afternoon, evening, when the air is warmed up, there is more space that allows more of the higher frequencies of light to pass through.

Edit: Longer wavelengths or frequencies of light are blue so there are more

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because the sun have been up for like 12 hours prior, so everything around is hotter, the sun light is the same

Anonymous 0 Comments

The “white” light we get from the sun is actually composed of lots of different colors (like a rainbow). When light rays bend via refraction, the different colors bend differently. When the sun appears closer to the horizon (morning near sunrise, evening near sunset), more orange-red colored light reaches the surface of the Earth (and any clouds/dust/aerosols hanging in the air near the surface).

So that’s the source of reddish/warmer light. How much of that warmer light reaches your eyes depends in large part on how much dust/cloud/aerosol cover there is for that light to bounce off of and reflect back down to the ground. In many places, much of that dust/cloud/aerosol cover comes in large part from activity that occurs during the day (car exhaust fumes, industrial output, etc.). When that activity cease (or slows) at the end of the day, it dissipates. Therefore, in the morning there are fewer particulates in the air to reflect the red light.

As a result sunsets are generally a more spectacular red/orange than sunrises.

See also [Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-smog-creates-beautiful-sunsets/).

Anonymous 0 Comments

I searched for this once and the answer was Rayleigh Scattering. The same factor that affects the color of the sky in the morning and evening also affects the way light looks at 10am versus 3pm.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Where are you that solar noon happens at 2pm, by the way?

Anonymous 0 Comments

10am and 6pm is definitely not the same angle.. far from it.

10am and 2pm would be closer.

Anonymous 0 Comments

did anyone mention that the redder light in the afternoon is likely due to more dust being kicked up into the atmosphere as humans go about their daytime, as opposed to nighttime business? then in the cool of the night, the dust settles, the sky color cools relatively