Hi, everybody. Welcome to Episode 17 of the photography explained podcast. In this episode, what time of day is best to take photos?
I’m your host, Rick, and each week I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes without the irrelevant details. My aim is to explain things in just enough detail to help us with our photography and no more.
Yes, we’re on episode 17, and I still have to read that out. Maybe by the time we get to episode 50, I’ll be able to remember this.
So what time of day is best to take photos?
This is I think episode five in a series of podcasts about composition and taking photos. I didn’t want to dive into aperture, F stop, gear, blah, blah, blah. Not yet. Because I think that the process of taking photos and composition is more important than the gear.
As I’ve said before, and I will say again, you can take a great photo with average gear, and you can take a rubbish photo with great gear. It’s not the gear – it’s what you point your camera at, what you include and do not include in your composition, and how you take the photo.
And that leads me seamlessly, completely by chance, back to the subject of what time of day is the best to take photos.
Here is my answer
The best time of day to take photos depends on the following
- The subject
- The orientation of the subject
- The weather
- Indoors
- Outdoors
- Commercial pressures
- Artificial light (or not).
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
Words with Friends just came up with my word for the day, which is snowing, thanks for that – should have put it on do not disturb – note to self.
So those are the headlines. Sure there’s good light and not-so-good light. But I have managed to take great photos in all sorts of lighting, at all sorts of times of the day, and night.
The subject.
Obviously, the subject is a massive factor in the best time to take a photo. Using a landscape as an example. You wouldn’t photograph a landscape when everything’s in shadow, you’re photographing ideally, in or around sunrise or sunset or some time in between.
If it’s a building, I would like the sun to be on the main facade of the building. So the time of day depends on the subject, what you’re photographing and where it is.
The orientation of the subject.
Ideally, a building will be south facing and I will photograph it in lovely sunlight. Some clients, however, do not want the building photographed in sunlight. They want a more realistic appearance. So in that case you’d need to be there when the sun wasn’t on the face. So it’s just one of those things to work out. There is a big point at the end of this which I will get on to trust me.
Weather
The weather has an impact on the best time of day to take photos. Why I hear you ask?? Well, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So you’ve got to consider that it is constantly moving.
If it’s a nice, bright but overcast day does it really matter what time you take a photo because the sun is diffused by the clouds?
If it’s a very cloudy day, there’s not much sunlight getting in. Definitely doesn’t matter does it? So the weather is a factor or can be a factor.
Indoors or outdoors
One of the main things about an interior shot is the sun streaming in through the window. If that was important to the architect it can make an average shot great. Then I need to know what time that is. I will have a drawing showing the elevations and their orientation in relation to North.
So this doesn’t only apply to outdoor photos, it does apply to indoor photos. Sometimes it’s easier to photograph an interior space when it’s overcast and you got less of a difference in the light inside and outside. Although as I teased in the last episode, I will talk on a future episode about bracketing and get shot by the purists.
I mean metaphorically shot of course.
Sunrise
If you’re going to photograph the sunrise don’t go as the sun is rising. Why is that I hear you ask? I’d love somebody to ask me – because you’ve missed the best bit. When I’m on holiday, I often photograph sunsets and sunrises.
Normally, sunrises, but I’ll come on to that in a minute.
I will get to the location and be ready to take photos (and take videos on my phone) probably an hour before actual sunrise, and I will also stay there for some time afterwards. Now what I do with a sunrise is this. I will find a composition I want at sunrise, but I will only be after one photo of that sunrise.
Pinterest message coming in. It’s all happening today.
Sure, I’ll take more than one photo, but I’ve got one composition I want to capture. So after sunrise, you’ve still got fantastic directional light. And I tend to wander around and see what else I can get. Normally when I’m walking back, especially if I’m in a nice sunny place.
Yep, sunset.
Obviously, that is a great time to take a photo. And again, you’ve got the one or two hours before sunset. And then the time after sunset. Once the sun’s gone, the sun’s gone. But it depends on where you are and what the weather’s like and what have you.
I don’t tend to take that many sunsets because unlike sunrise, the sunsets are in the evening, and in the evening the bars open.
That sounds bad, doesn’t it?
I’m normally in the bar. And while I’m normally in the bar in the evenings, especially on holiday, so that’s why sunrise works for me. So yeah, sunset, I quite like it. But I prefer sunrise, I also get this wonderful thing called the start of a new day. And normally, nobody else is watching what I’m watching from that place. So that’s a special thing.
Do not take photos at noon.
You read that all over the place. Nonsense. Noon might be the worst light in the day with the sun directly overhead. But you can still get great photos. I got one the other day on my iPhone, just after noon.
Commercial pressures.
Now, if I’m doing a shoot for a client I will have a set time when I can take the photos, I will not have the luxury of sunrise and sunset and all the hours in between, I will probably have from eight or 10 or nine till 12 or something. And that will be it. I will have three hours, rain or shine to get the shots. I do try and plan things so it’s fine. I need fine weather not rain.
That’s no use to me (rain that is).
But I do not have a choice of the time of day 95% of the time. So the best I get is some time on a dry day. And I have to make the best of it.
So all these people who say that you can’t get great shots (at noon) – it’s a lot of nonsense. It’s rubbish.
Last point, not my strong suit
Artificial light.
If the light is rubbish, and you need to take a photo, you can introduce lights to make the scene work. I’m not the best one to talk about this. In fact, I’m quite rubbish with artificial lighting. So I’ll leave that to others.
Okay, I’m done. times nearly up.
So what’s next? In Photography Explained podcast episode 17 it says here. Episode 18 of course. The short answer is I don’t know. Subscribe to my podcast and you’ll find out when it appears. Okay, thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did enjoy it, please leave a nice review and rating wherever you get your podcast from. And also please subscribe as I said before, and if you could tell somebody about my podcast, that will be great.
OK – the next episode ended up being What Are The Qualities Of A Good Photo?
Running out of time, check out my website, Rick McEvoy Photography if you want me to answer a question. Let me know. I’ve been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again for Listening and giving me 10 minutes of your day. And I will see you in the next episode.
Cheers from me, Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
