What do you want your session to look like? Comparing Sessions

We know that sessions can look very different depending on location and weather. One of the very first questions I ask my clients is what do they want their session to look like? Do you want sun-lit, golden hour warmth? Do you want cooler, moody? Light, bright and airy? Do you want a field? Do you want more rural and textural? A mixture of both? These are all great things to consider to achieve the desired look you want especially when figuring out location and time of the session.

Golden Hour Sessions

First look we’ll cover is the evening golden hour look. To achieve this look we need a fabulous sunset in the evening. Manassas Battlefield and my Woodbridge mini session location get amazing golden-hour sunsets.

Location: Golden hour seems to go really great with field settings although a beautiful warm sunset looks great anywhere.

Weather: We need a clear to partly-cloudy sunny evening.

Things to consider:

You might want a golden hour session if:

You want warmer-toned images
You you want an evening session
You love the look of back-lit, romantic and contrasting images that the sunset adds
You are ok with possibly rescheduling if there is major cloud cover

You might NOT want a golden hour session if:

If you want cooler toned images
Your kids go to sleep early or have conflicting bed times with session time and will likely be grouchy. Although some kids LOVE staying up a wee bit later! Fall is a good time for sunset sessions with little kids as it sets closer to 5pm.
If you want mostly light, bright and airy images
If you want a day-time session

Time of day:

Sunset times change from season to season. In the fall sunset sessions can begin as early as 4:30. In the summer sunset session times start as late as 7:30. Choosing the season to schedule your sunset session is an important thing to consider especially for families with small children.

Light, Bright, Airy Sessions

Second, we’ll cover the cooler, light, bright and airy look. To achieve this session look we aren’t as dependent on time of day as with a golden-hour session. Sessions can be done any time of day.

Location: In your home or indoors, or outside. Time of day is more flexible.

Weather: If shooting in-home/indoors we need a sunny, bright day to maximize the natural light inside your home. If shooting outdoors a cloudy isn’t a big deal. We actually won’t have to find shade, and that could be a benefit.