One question I get fairly frequently from clients as I’m taking their photos is: how do you choose locations for photo shoots?
Most clients who come to me either 1) have a location picked out in advance that they want to use for their session, or 2) tell me the style of backdrop they’re looking for, and I make suggestions for potential locations based on their specifications. Either way, once a client chooses a location (either on their own or with my direction), my job is to find spots at that location that I can use to achieve the style and look of images that clients see on my website.
It’s important to me that a client knows the style of work they are going to get when they choose to work with me. The vast majority of images on my website are vibrant/colorful and bright, so when a client chooses a location for their photo session and chooses me to be the photographer based on the work they’ve seen on my website, my job is to create work for them that is consistent with the work they’ve seen on my website - even at a location I’ve never shot at before.
So, how is this done? How can consistency be maintained across a multitude of different types of locations?
Before every session - either days in advance or an hour in advance - I location scout wherever I will be taking photos. Location scouting is essentially just checking out the light and location of where a session will be taking place to see what spots are suitable for creating bright & vibrant imagery, and what spots are not.
While I’m location scouting, I’m looking for a few specific things. First and foremost, position and quality of light.
1 - Position & Quality of Light
As a photographer who primarily uses natural light for outdoor photography, it’s important for me to know where the sun will be during the timeframe that the photo session will be taking place. My goal is to almost always have my subject facing away from the sun. Because of this, I have to make sure that any specific spots I choose to use during a session are working in cooperation with the available light and with the look I am trying to achieve.
I will choose different locations when photographing an evening photo session versus a morning one, because the sun switches spots in the sky throughout the day. On an overcast day, however, I am able to use MANY more backdrops because the light is much easier to work with - it falls softly across my subject no matter which direction I have them facing, which means we are able to use a wider variety of backdrops.
The light is the first determining factor when figuring out what locations can be used for a photo session.
2 - Natural Reflectors
Because my clients are often facing away from the sun, I want to make sure they have enough light bouncing back onto their faces (filling their features, as I like to say!) so that they look illuminated and bright. You might have experience this struggle before if you’ve ever tried to take a backlit photo of someone on a sunny day on your phone - their face might not be very well light, and it probably lacked contrast. One reason is because phones just don’t always have the capacity to expose a subject well when backlit, but another reason is because there might not be any light bouncing back into your subject’s face - it’s all coming from behind.
Here’s how I fix this problem: by utilizing “natural reflectors.” (And sometimes artificial ones, too!)
Let me explain - a “natural reflector” is any light that bounces off of the scenery around my subject (the ground, a wall, etc.) onto their faces. Whatever surface is below my subject reflects trace amounts of light onto their faces, especially on a very bright day (the brighter the sun = the more intense reflection of surface light). This means that placing my subject on a large patch of green grass in the middle of the afternoon can create a green color cast on their skin, making them look a bit sickly. Putting my subject next to a large, red brick wall on a bright day means that some of that red will reflect onto their face. However, putting that same subject on a white or cream colored cement or cobblestone means that they will have flattering light reflected onto their face - because a white or cream colored surface reflects “clean” light that doesn’t have a color tint.
I always look for natural reflectors when I am looking at locations, because they help my subjects look their best, and are easiest to work with. This is especially helpful when it comes to photo sessions with larger groups (families & bridal parties, especially) when I can’t use an artificial reflector to correct the color as easily. (If you’re wondering what an artificial reflector looks like, click here!). I will often use an artificial reflector to correct color casts from green grass and brick buildings when I really want to use a location that doesn’t have an optimal natural reflector!
3 - Variety of Backdrops
After first and foremost considering the light, then natural reflectors, I finally move on to considering specific backdrops at a location. For me, specifically, I tend to gravitate more towards lighter colored and colorful backdrops. This means looking for light colored architecture, bright flowers, white cobblestone pathways, trees with lighter green shrubbery, and the like. It’s easiest for me to achieve the “look” of bright, vibrant, and colorful when I choose backdrops that coincide with the style that I am to consistently achieve.
Some locations have more potential for getting an increased amount of different “looks” than others. If you choose a simple park for your senior session, most of your photos might look very similar - trees, grass, maybe a bench, maybe some flowers. But if you choose something more dynamic - say, a park that has some additional features to it, such as a dock, a field, a lake, etc. - you will get more variety in your overall gallery!
Some of my favorite spots to shoot are locations that combine nature with architecture - locations in Pittsburgh like Mellon Park & Hartwood Acres come to mind first, because they have so much more than just grass and trees to work with!
4 - Variety of “Posing Opportunities”
I always like to look for a variety of “posing options/opportunities” to maximize the poses I can direct my clients into when scouting a location. For example - is there somewhere they can sit? Something they can lean on? Something they can lay on? Squat in? Walk through? Peek out from behind? Or is there really only an option to stand in some grass for the majority of the session? That can get very repetitive and limits the amount of poses we’re able to accomplish.
Benches, stairways, railings, doorways, steps, chairs, fences, gates, trees, archways, bridges, and the like all help add not only variety of scenery, but variety of poses that can be achieved during a given session.
