Golden hours

It looks like there's a great scene here with stark lighting, interesting cloud patterns and a wonderful golden colour palette. For me though it's let down by the editing as it looks a little over-processed. This may be a JPEG straight out of camera or a RAW conversion, but it'd be worth bracketing a series of shots in future as this can really help you control the tricky lighting of sunsets and then merge the tones together in Photoshop which should stop the sun from blowing out to pure white. It's a great scene and with a bit more practice I'm confident you'll be on to a winner.

The colours in Jacquie’s shot are simply sublime, with soft pinks and yellows bathing the background as the sun sets. Her wide composition adds context to the picture and gives her focal point room to breathe - it’s a wonderful photo!

Noya's incredible image comes top of this month's Golden Hours competition. We loved her use of creative backlighting, warm golden tones that flood the frame and central composition with the pose of the dancer in the middle of the frame instantly pulling the eye in to the centre of the shot. Fantastic work!

Shooting at sunset or sunrise gives you one of the most challenging lighting situations you can face, no more so that when you're aiming directly towards the sun. This wasn't a problem for Barbara though, as she's underexposed the image to retain all of that wonderful detail and colour in the sky, while turning the trees and antelope into a striking silhouette - great work!