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When is the perfect time for an outdoor portrait?
Have you ever wondered how photographers make outdoor photos look so amazing? It’s because they know when the best time is to take a photo.
The Grand River in Brantford, Ontario. Time: 8:45pm
You can’t just go outside at any time and take a photo. You have to wait until what is called the Golden Hour. The Golden Hour refers to the perfect time to take a photo outdoors, which is during or right after sunrise and sunset. These times have the perfect light.
They are the times when the sun is a golden orange colour and there are beautiful colours in the sky like pink and purple.
It’s the summer right now so the sunlight is really nice from 5:00am-7:00am and from 7:00pm-9:00pm. That is when the best photos are taken.
A lot of people think that a good time to take a picture is during the middle of the day at around 11:00am-4:00pm when the sun is at it’s peak (that’s when a lot of people chose to book their outdoor photo shoots), but actually that’s not a very good time to take pictures outside!
The light is at it’s worst at those times. The lighting is very contrasty and harsh because the light is right above you which causes strong highlights and shadows from the sun. For example, if you were taking a picture of a person in the sun there would be a strong shadow right behind them (which can look good if that’s what you’re going for) and unpleasing shadows under their eyes, nose, and chin.
But sometimes you don’t have a choice and you have to shoot during the day, so you can look for ideal weather conditions like cloudy skies which help to keep everything at the same exposure and helps to diffuse the sunlight.
So basically if you want to take an awesome photo outside, use the light from the sun coming up or going down. That’s the best time for photos.
Landscape photos are usually taken in the morning or evening as well.
I went to the Grand River here in Brantford to take some photos in the evening.
Time: 8pm-9pm
Taking pictures in the evening works great for portraits too.
Time: 8pm
So give some thought about what time you want to book your next photo shoot :)
Cheers!
-Orianna