As a Family and Wedding Photographer one of my most asked questions from clients is why are their photos scheduled so late in the day, especially in the summer months my sessions are scheduled around 8pm, and that can be late for some people. Then at weddings I am always sneaking my clients away for sunset portraits too. 

Here is a perfect example of different lighting on a wedding day, that first photo is mid day, you can see the lighting is beautiful but there are shadows casting on their face. When you look at the second image you can see the lighting is behind them and casting a beautiful golden light on the skin. At every single wedding I do, I add a 20 minute break from guests for the couple to sneak away to get some beautiful portraits as the sun goes down. This allows for the couple to have some time just together, and to get these beautiful images, these sunset images are normally the photos my clients fall in love with, and why they hire me.

In this image here we did take them in the morning in the summer, but we had to get up at 6am, and shoot at 7:30 am to get the sun directly behind them. The shoot was a little quicker than my normal sessions because the sun rises QUICK in the summer.

If we do photos in the morning, or mid day we have to find shade, and finding shade limits where we can shoot, and how I shoot. My style of photography is 50% storytelling, 25% prompts to get genuine laughter or moments from you and your family and 25% posing. If we are stuck in one area due to needing to find shade to properly light you and your family a lot of my storytelling goes out the window because you and your kids aren’t free to roam the location. It just causes more of a stiff atmosphere for your portraits. 

Because I did these maternity photos at sunset I was able to take full advantage of this location in the Columbia River Gorge and offer my clients multiple backdrops for this session.

If you shoot with the sun directly above you, which is a majority of the day during the sunny months here in Vancouver Washington, the sun will cast shadows on your face. Don’t get me wrong, direct sunlight can be beautiful for SOME photos, but the majority of your photos look best with the sun dropping behind you. 

This wedding is a perfect example of the time of year coming into play with lighting as well. In the summer months its really hard to pull off direct light in the mid day because its just SO BRIGHT. For this fall wedding though, the sun isn’t directly in the middle of the sky for long. The day here started around 12 for me and I did their bridal portraits twice that day, once around 2pm, so the sun was starting to hit the tree line, casting shadows and areas to place my couple for good lighting. As you see in the first photo, then that evening as the fog rolled in at 5pm I was able to get some more portraits in with a more moodier lighting.

All this to say is lighting will change everything about your photos, so hire a photographer who is well trained in the lighting you like, and trust their timing. It will all pay out in the end!