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Golden hour time december 17/29/2023 ![]() Most babies don’t last until this time of day, but it’s great for engagement sessions or maternity sessions. The parks may be busier, but I love to photograph with this light and also when the sun dips beyond the horizon even. If you can’t do sunrise, sunset is the best. Undoubtedly, sunrise and sunset are the best time of day for photos. The combination of great light, a happy baby, and an empty park (no traffic and parking issues to contend with either – yay!) will make it all worth it. You only do photos a couple of times a year (if you are enrolled in my baby 1 year program) or once if you have older kids. It’s the parents (and me) that are usually groggy before the caffeine hits the blood stream. Usually kids are as happy as a clam first thing in the morning. Witching hour is definitely something we have to balance out. But my baby naps/feeds/is cranky during that time On the opposite end of the flexibility scale, if you are on the beach there is no other time except for sunset or sunrise. For example, if we are doing an urban setting where there is a lot of open shade and reflective concrete and surfaces, I can photograph families closer to ‘danger zone’ of bad lighting. There are always caveats and details that should go along with these blanket statements. If there are other apps you would recommend me to check out, please reach out! Exceptions? I tend to balance two or more weather apps (3rd choice is to see the average and I do not trust one app solely. If I would choose one app, Weather Underground/Wunderground is my recommendation. Over the past 5 years I have watched the weather every single day. ![]() The two apps I recommend are WeatherUnderground and Dark Sky. I would love to say “Sure! We can shoot whenever you want”, but in order to create the images I’m known for, you have to understand that light plays a very large factor. We may get lucky and have clouds roll in, but if we have cloudless skies, we will have to duck for shade, and it will affect the quality of light in your images. Sure, we can shoot at 9am or 3pm, but do know there is a tradeoff with the quality of light. Everyone loves to negotiate but Mother Nature is unfortunately set in her ways. The followup question I always get is “Can we shoot mid-way between?”. So basically the light gets worse as you approach noon from either direction (sunrise or sunset). No one is attractive when they’re squinting into the lens unless they’re Paul Newman, or Chris Hemsworth. When the sun is out in full force we all have a tendency to squint as well. This creates terrible and unflattering shadows where we don’t wait to see them (under our eyes, under our noses to make them seem bigger … no one wants that). The worst light of the day is between the hours of 10am and 2pm when the light comes from overhead. This makes it easier to balance and also looks more flattering. ![]() ![]() Because they have more atmosphere to penetrate to get to you (the subject) it’s less intense and is more easily offset by the indirect light that will also hit you. This is because the sun’s rays have further to travel when they are low on the horizon. Golden hour is a thing and the reason it’s the best time of day to photograph is because the light is less harsh during sunset/sunrise than during the middle of the day. Make sense? We don’t start at 7am because by the time we end it will be 3 hours + from sunrise. So this means if sunrise is 5am, I would want to start our Signature Session latest by around 6:20am so that we end by 7:40am which is close to the 2 hour cutoff from sunrise time. For indoor sessions I suggest within 2 hours on either side of noon depending on the time of year. The following suggestions are for outdoor sessions. Or you can use a specialty tool like ) and in the days before the session I touch base with each family or couple to firm up the session start time based on the forecasted weather. As a safety measure, I tell all of my clients we aim for the hour before sunset ( google is the best resource when trying to find out when sunset is. Since I am a Boston photographer, it’s pretty hit or miss if we manage to get a sunny day. Of course, this is based on the assumption the sun is visible. The number one question: When should we take photos?Įvery photographer will tell you that the best time of day to do photos is starting/ending within 1-2 hours of sunset or sunrise. ![]()
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