If I were paying a good amount of money for a photo session, I would want all the stars to line up and everything to be perfect.  While I can’t guarantee perfect conditions, I do know a few things when it comes to lighting.

Lighting in photography is super important.  As a natural light photographer, I want the area to be well lit for my shoot, but not super bright.  I don’t want any harsh shadows on clients’ faces and I want their skin to glow.  I also don’t want clients to have to squint their eyes.

How do you do that, you ask?  It’s called the Golden Hour and it’s absolutely the best time to shoot a photo session.  The Golden Hour is usually about an hour before sunset.  It’s when everything around you seems to turn into this yellow haze and it’s evenly diffused so that you don’t have harsh bright light on your face and in your eyes.  It’s also about an hour before sunrise, but no one wants to get up that early and be ready to roll for a photo session at that time.

Times also vary during different seasons throughout the year.  If you’re planning for a sunset wedding in July, then you’ll want the ceremony to start around 600pm.  If the ceremony lasts on average of 15 minutes, then we’re going to get some great portraits of you and yours as soon as you are hitched!  On the flip side, if you need a family Christmas card photo in the fall, then you’ll want to meet me at 515pm in October.

Once the sun goes down, that’s it.  I do use a flash for darker settings, but in terms of amazing light, when the sun is down, that’s a wrap!

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