Using the sun as the only natural source of light, what time of the day would you grab your camera and take photos?
Most probably your answer is going to be The Golden Hour or sunset or sunrise.
But WHY?
Well, it all has to do with the quality of light.
See, the light at the aforementioned times is all coming from the same source but all the wizardry is caused by the position of the sun in the sky. Both at sunset and sunrise, the sun is just at or above the horizon. What it does is that it creates a pretty soft light; favorable for almost any kind of photography except that if you want to go for very contrasty and dramatic shots.
Going further, this soft light also comes with a bonus and that is; beautiful colors in the sky.

So these are two of the main reasons that attract every photographer to shoot at that time of the day BUT this whole article would be just incomplete and really incomprehensive if I don't provide any examples and elucidate specific terms so that it just goes over newbies and beginner's heads.


Lighting



Lighting is the most important piece of a puzzle in the photo game. Without good lighting, even expensive cameras would take crappy photos. So, going back to the original topic, the lighting at sunsets and sunrise is really great. The light is soft and diffused creating a low contrast between the shadows and the highlights.

Here is an example



As you can see, the highlights in the sky and the shadows on the face are not overexposed or underexposed respectively. This is how a low contrast photo looks like. One point to add is that although the lighting may be even and soft, though it is gonna be less and you might have to compensate for it by increasing the ISO. A wise decision would be to actually buy a prime lens with the low aperture so that you would not have to sacrifice shutter speed or ISO.

Colors

The colorful sky with orangish and pinkish hues is the most magnetizing aspect of the golden hour photography. Shooting against the sun and the colorful sky provides a natural backdrop for your subject.
Furthermore, if you shoot your photos in RAW Format, you can have a lot of flexibility with the white balance and the colors. so you can adjust them to your own liking