Last Updated: February 15th, 2020

Ah, the great outdoors…and the age old question asked by new photographers everywhere: when is the best time to shoot outside?

It’s an incredibly common question, and an important one to know the answer to. While we could give you a roundabout answer, and could probably argue that anytime of day could be a good, maybe even great, time to shoot photographs – the reality of the question is probably a little more simple.

When asking what the best time of day for taking photographs is, you are likely also wondering about what time of day is the easiest and most striking.

With these 3 components in mind – the best, easiest, and most striking times of day for photography, what do we think?

The answer is: Golden Hour

What is Golden Hour?

Golden hour is the time 1 hour after sunrise, and 1 hour before sunset.

The find these times on any given day, Google “sunset (month) (day)”. This is something we do pretty much every time we are scheduling a photo shoot.

Like the phrase implies, Golden Hour is the times of day most often painted in appealing, soft, and dramatic light. For virtually any type of photography, be it portraits, landscapes, or otherwise – shooting during these timeframes are most likely to give you great images.

As photographers, we love shooting in Golden Hour because it is, generally, easier to do. We worry less about getting the right settings dialed in, or being in the right light, and more about the composition of our images.

In addition to this, even a non-photographer could see the appeal of taking photographs during a beautiful sunset or sunrise. The stunning colors that paint the sky add a lot of depth to an image, and can take a landscape that is otherwise pretty boring and make it quite interesting.

For portraits, they are usually enhanced as a result of the softer light. Golden hour is when the sun is low on the horizon, and instead of having the sunlight beaming from direct overhead as you have during the middle of the day – the sun stays well off to the side and the light is softened.

Despite it’s name, Golden Hour doesn’t necessarily have to mean a nice sunset. Even if the day is cloudy, the light is still more ideal by this time.

Collection of images we’ve taken during Golden Hour:

We have collected an assortment of pictures we have taken over the past few years during Golden Hour. A large portion of our portfolio is made up of images like these. This tends to ring true for a lot of photographers in general. It’s just hard to beat the mood images created during this time give off so naturally.

What other times are good for photography outside?

Now that we’ve all cleared and acknowledged Golden Hour as the supreme leader of outdoor photography timing, we want to discuss some other situations and timing that can be great for photography.

Remember: your style of photography will be influenced, at least to some extent, by the time of day and resulting light available. While sunset portraits have been a “thing” for a while now, more recently there has been an increasing trend in using harsh, mid-day light for portraits – so timing ends up becoming to each their own to some extent.

With this said, the thoughts coming up are our own, and as a result shape a lot of our photography session scheduling. While we can shoot in any type of light and at any time of day (and we have to be able to as wedding photographers), we definitely have our preferences as they lend themselves to our style more consistently.

Cloudy days – ANY time of day. We LOVE cloudy skies. The reason for this is simple: much like Golden Hour where the light starts to look like it is being processed through a natural soft box, clouds occurring even in the middle of the day diffuse light, and make it easier to photograph in. While we often hope for good weather for our sessions (if not for ourselves – for our clients), we do tend to pray for clouds in the sky.
Rainy days – ANY time of day. We recently felt some of the runoff of hurricanes on the East Coast here in Pennsylvania, and being unable to reschedule a wedding and photo shoot held during these time frames – it’s safe to say shooting in the rain, or after the rain has stopped, really has the ability to add some serious depth and color to our images that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Puddles in the street, more vibrancy in the colors – even on simple things like the road – really make shooting on rainy days more interesting. Of course, you want to come prepared with camera rain covers and, if you’re carting around a lot of gear, a waterproof camera bag.
Night time. ANY time after dark. While our immediate thoughts for “good times of day to take photographs” immediately runs to Golden Hour, a lot of excellent images are taken after the big light in the sky…goes out. Night photographers often will take advantage of the ambient lights available in cities, incorporate flash photography, and leverage long exposures to create some interesting shots. Taking things to the extreme, astrophotography is a art style that requires dark skies.