Capture the Best Golden Sunset Scenes

The shader is at its most striking at sunset, when the whole scene is wrapped in its golden hue. Here is how to set up and frame those moments.

Set the time and conditions

1. In a world with cheats enabled, type /time set sunset to jump straight to dusk.

2. Clear any rain with /weather clear. Overcast skies dull the warm light.

3. Run /gamerule doDaylightCycle false if you want to freeze the sun in place while you line up shots. Set it back to true when you are done.

4. In Settings > Video, raise render distance as far as your device handles comfortably so distant terrain also picks up the golden glow.

Frame the shot

• Face the sun. Looking toward the setting sun gives the strongest warm tones. Turning away shows how the light falls across block faces.
• Use open terrain. Plains, beaches, deserts and hilltops let the golden light spread across a wide area.
• Include a build. Your structures look brighter under the shader, so put a house or tower in the foreground for contrast against the sky.
• Hide the HUD. Turn off the interface in Video settings for clean screenshots.

Try the same spot at midday too. The soft sunlight still tints everything gold, but the sunset version is far more dramatic.