February 14, 2022
Jason Parnell-Brooks
When is the best time of day to take portrait photos outdoors? Should we only shoot during golden hours and avoid midday entirely, or is it better to use some simple light touch-ups during the brightest hours of the day? In this guide, we explore the best times to shoot outdoor portraits.
Portraits are one of the most used types of photography, everyone takes selfies or family photos around birthdays and holidays. However, various changes in light, both quantitative and qualitative, can affect the outdoor portraits we can take.
Shooting in a studio where conditions are controlled and lighting, backgrounds and styling are all precisely monitored is great, but taking things outdoors can make things trickier. There are a lot of variables that can go wrong with outdoor portraits due to weather, sun position, shooting location, etc.
However, through this guide, we will focus on best practices at all times of day to ensure successful outdoor portraits. From apps that help us plan for the best weather and time of day, to checking out some helpful tips for making the most of modifying the quality and quantity of light that falls on our subjects. We will also consider what to look for in camera equipment and how camera settings affect our final results.
Planning an Outdoor Portrait Photo Shoot
- What are the prime hours for photography?
- What is the blue hour in photography?
- Sunrise Portraits Photography
- Noon Shots
- Shooting in Evening Light
- Twilight and Night Photos
- Outdoor Lighting Objects
- Photography Kit Selections
Planning an Outdoor Portrait Photo Shoot
Shooting Portraits Outdoors Requires considerable planning , just like any other type of outdoor photography photo like landscape or astrophotography . That's because weather and sun position play a big role in where and how we shoot. Of course, check the weather forecast for the shooting location first before setting off. The closer to the shoot the more accurate the forecast will be, but establish a deadline to avoid disappointing others at the last minute when working as a team.
Planning for sun positions is relatively easy using smartphone apps such as Photographer's Ephemeris Table or PhotoPills, which help track the position of the sun (and moon) throughout the year, regardless of location. Additional built-in features like shadow length tracking and golden hour angles make it easier to be in the right spot for certain styles of outdoor portraits. It's possible to fast forward and rewind in time, so there's no reason to check before taking a photo.
What is the golden hour of photography?
One of the most popular times of day that portrait photographers target is golden hour, the short period of time after sunrise or before sunset when the low angle of the sun makes the natural light in the scene soft and golden (hence the name) ).
Comparison photos showing natural light during daytime (top) and golden hour (bottom).
Also known as the "magic hour," this is often considered the best time of day to shoot portraits because you can get warm, directional light.
portrait taken during golden hour.
What is the Blue Hour in Photography?
Like golden hour, blue hour also occurs around sunrise and sunset, except that it is a short period of time (perhaps 20 or 30 minutes) before sunrise or after sunset when the sun is at Below the horizon and without directly illuminating your subject.
Portraits taken during the blue hour will have shades of blue and a more varied quality.
Portrait taken during blue hour.
Sunrise and Morning Portraits
While sunrise and sunset can be considered the same, there are actually some key differences between them.
Overnight, as the Earth spins and the Sun disappears from view, the atmosphere cools. Moisture in the atmosphere condenses on the ground, which may cause condensation or even frost, depending on the location. As the sun rises, before it warms the ground and this moisture evaporates, there is a small opportunity to capture the moisture condensation shining in the new light, like sparkling jewels in the background.
In the morning, clouds are difficult to form because the sun has not yet heated the ground sufficiently to create strong thermal convection. It is this rising air that can form clouds in the sky.
However, what sunrises and sunsets have in common is that the sun is low in the sky, sweeping across the landscape and providing longer shadows. Because the sun has to pass through a thicker part of the atmosphere, blue light is scattered more, thus enhancing warmer, lower wavelength light such as orange and red. This allows the photographer to use natural, warm, side or backlighting to highlight facial features, hair or clothing.
Shooting directly into the sun is more likely to create silhouettes because the extreme brightness of the sun contrasts with the dark shadow side when the subject is between the camera and the sun. However, sometimes this darkening of the subject can be unintentional and additional lighting must be used to offset this, which we will discuss in the lighting section below.
Shooting at Noon
Shooting at noon, when the sun is highest in the sky, is often considered the worst time for outdoor portraiture. That's because overhead lighting looks unflattering, casting shadows downward on the face.
Portrait taken in harsh midday sunlight.
Clear skies produce stronger shadows and a greater difference between highlights and shadows, which makes it harder for cameras to capture detail because of their limited dynamic range. Of course, the strength of this effect depends on where you are on Earth, with places closer to the equator being more affected by this effect than places closer to the poles.
However, this contrasting look may be exactly what you are looking for, as it all depends on the desired photo style. But if not, there are ways to take advantage of the glare of the overhead sun. The simplest step is to change from standing to lying down, facing the camera. This will reposition the face's shadow based on the object's orientation.
To completely eliminate the glare problem, head to some shade. It could be a shadow from a building, a shadow under a tree, or a shadow you cast with some kind of flag (like the black side of a 5-in-1 reflector).
It is important not to walk too far into the shade, as in deep into the woodland, because the further you go the darker it will be. That's because light propagates according to the inverse square law of , but we'll omit the technical jargon behind that. Essentially, go as deep into the shadow as possible to create a shadow on the subject, but no more. This keeps the light intensity bright enough to match the original camera settings.
Instead of blocking the light completely, diffuse it slightly. If this is the case, a 5-in-1 reflector such as the Lastolite Trigrip Reflector will provide a diffusing panel to spread the light softly. Place it between the subject and the sun, and for best results keep it as close to the subject as possible without going into the frame. Either hold the panel yourself and let the model hold it, or set it up on a reflector bracket attached to a light stand, but be careful in high winds as it may need to be weighed down.
If the shadows aren't that bad but you need some fill light to brighten the shadows, then reflectors work well.Reflector kits typically come in white for subtle fills, silver for more intense fills, gold for warmer tones, and silver/gold stripes (called zebra stripes by some) for transitions between silver and gold.
Other options for fill light are strobes such as strobes or studio strobes, although the latter usually require a power source. Midday is often too bright for continuous lighting, which is why we turn to flashes that can output a brighter light.
Photographed in evening light
The effect of sunset light is the same as sunrise, except that it appears on the west side of the sky (depending on location). So we can achieve the same side and backlighting as a sunrise, except now we have the added benefit that we can capture larger clouds in the sky behind the subject due to convection from the warm landscape.
The times around sunset also tend to be busier because more people are getting up than in the early morning. This means there are more possibilities for capturing outdoor portraits of people and traffic. This is useful for street scenes, especially when you want to capture more of the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Twilight and night photos
As night falls after sunset, we reach the blue hour, when the sun's direct light has disappeared, but the scene is still affected by ambient light. The entire landscape is now in shadow and therefore has a lower color temperature (measured in Kelvin ) and thus appears bluer.
As light levels drop, it's a good idea to adjust your camera settings to compensate. A wider aperture can be used to brighten the image, but this will also produce a shallower depth of field. If the depth of field needs to remain the same, then we can change the ISO sensitivity or shutter speed to increase the exposure. ISO sensitivity increases the image sensor's sensitivity to light, but the higher you set it, the more image noise you introduce, so we want to keep it as low as possible.
A longer shutter speed means the image sensor is exposed to light for longer. However, if the shutter speed is too long, unwanted blur may occur, either due to camera shake blur (if shooting handheld) or subject blur where the subject cannot stay still enough. But this can be used to your advantage by deliberately capturing movement such as traffic trails, or moving the camera deliberately when used in conjunction with a flash to freeze the subject in the foreground.
Outdoor Lighting Objects
Illuminating our subject is almost as important as setting up the shot. After all, photography is about the interplay between light and shadow. Therefore, it is important to consider how to light outdoor portraits.
During the day, when the sun is shining, a flash may be the best way to introduce light for outdoor portraits. That's because they output a lot of light in a short period of time to fill in and even overcome the effects of sunlight. Flashes are a great portable option that are typically powered by AA batteries, making them inexpensive and accessible to many people. Studio flashes, although generally more powerful, usually require mains power and are therefore only suitable for shooting close to a power source, although some flashes will drain the battery.
Continuous lighting is more suitable for beginners as they can see the effect of light on the subject and can change camera settings without any restrictions such as shutter speed sync. However, this lighting is typically much dimmer than flash lighting and is better suited for low-light photography such as at sunset, dusk, or at night.
Kit Choice Makes a Difference
Lenses play an important role in the look of any image, but are especially important in outdoor portraits. Of course, focal length affects the look of a photo, with longer lenses isolating the subject from the background and seeming to compress the perspective to flatten facial features. Lens coatings can also affect photographers 's ability to shoot in sunlight, and better coatings can reduce glare and ghosting.
The shape of the aperture blades directly affects the appearance of bokeh (out-of-focus areas).A greater number of blades and a rounder aperture will produce smoother bokeh. However, we can influence this by buying or making our own custom-shaped lens caps, turning the little circles of bokeh into hearts, stars, or anything else. The overall impact of the
body on outdoor portrait effects is small. Unless you are shooting action portraits, such as runners or other athletes, the continuous shooting speed must be very high. However, the camera's ability to connect and focus with the lens in dim environments can be important for low-light portraits. Entry-level DSLRs and mirrorless cameras typically focus to around -3EV, with some of the most advanced cameras capable of -6.5EV and performance continues to improve.
