All About The Lights

Today we are talking all about lighting when it comes to booking a session. Depending on the photographer that you're looking to hire, the lighting situation will likely change (though we all typically agree that we love golden hour). Some photographers will use artificial lighting, while others rely completely on natural lighting. Both can produce amazing results when done correctly. Here at KDC, we do a mix of artificial and natural depending on our setting but for the purpose of this post we are going to focus on the natural lighting aspect and what it means when you book a session.

If we have ever talked about booking a session (especially between May and October) then you know I tend to book mainly in the evening hours or super early in the morning for sunrise. These times are your golden hours and are the coveted times to book. Why do we love golden hour? Because the lighting is fricken fantastic when the sun is shining. Golden hour lighting gives off a soft, warm light that honestly everyone looks amazing in. Seriously, I have yet to find someone that doesn't look like they should be a professional model when we shoot during this time. Now the one downside to golden hour is that if we get a dreary day that gray look is much darker (hello artificial lighting).

Now, obviously not everyone can book during golden hour times for various reasons. While it isn't golden hour, I like to start booking my evenings out as early as 5pm depending on the year (mainly the warmer months). I find that while the sun can definitely still be harsh depending on the location, it is still much softer than a midday session when the sun is straight up in the sky. During these earlier sessions, you will find that we work with the sun angles and shadow casts. You will normally find me saying that we need to "Peter Pan" this which means that in order to avoid harsh shadows on the face we want to see your shadow in front of you.