Why Light Matters

One of the biggest decisions that goes into a photoshoot is what time we should hold the session.  I always advise clients on the best time of day to get the best light.  Of course these times are usaully incovenient to those of us that have kids.  I get it.  7AM or 5PM are HORRIBLE times of day for kids!  Even with my early risers it would be nearly impossible to get them up, fed, dressed, and to location by 7AM, much less getting myself ready for a photoshoot.  Afternoon might seem easier, but at 4:30-5PM my kids start to crash and cooperation is increasingly difficult. 

However the light really does make a HUGE difference!  Shadows get too dark, backlighting gets too bright, and bad light is just all together unflattering on everyone.  Here is a good example of the difference of just 40 minutes.  

My kids started Kindergarten and preschool this year, and of course there was the obligatory first day photo.  My son started a couple weeks earlier, on that day I was mom first and photographer took a back seat.  I organized his lunch and made his favorite breakfast, got him all dressed and ready and planned the photoshoot for right before we left for school.  At that point I realized I should have planned the pictures before breakfast!  At just 7:40 in the morning the shadows had darkened and the shade was very spotty.  I had to underexpose to preserve details in the background and fix in post, but the end result was not as desireable as I had hoped.

2 weeks later my daughter started preschool, this time I was smart enough to do pictures BEFORE breakfast.  We started about 7AM, just 40 minutes before my sons "shoot", but wow does it make a huge difference!  See for yourself: 

Distracting shadows, unflattering skintone, lots of post production work.  

Can you see how my son's skintone is more grey and washed out, whereas with my daughter the light is beautifully difused, her skintone looks bright and peachy, and there is some pretty golden tones in the  background instead of harsh shadows?   Luckily this was just a mom pic to remember the first day of school.  My son's pics are not horrible, I was able to fix them well enough for my purposes.   And fortunately this provided an excellent example of why light really does matter.