Hey everyone,
I get this question a lot! Especially in December when my sunset sessions can be at around 19h00 and I thought maybe it is time to explain this a little better.
Why do I prefer to do my sessions at Sunset? Why cant we go a little earlier?
Here is why:
When I take my photos I usually put the sun behind my clients, in other words I look into the sun. This is so that the client don’t have to look in to the sun.
When you have to look into the sun it causes a lot of squinting, which is not preferred, because we want those beautiful smiles. It also helps even out the shadows on the faces.
Most of my sessions are done on the beach. Mossel Bay and the surrounding areas have such beautiful beaches and most people come here for the holiday and they want their memories of having fun on the beach.
The beach, the main culprit for my reason to do the sessions during sunset.
When the day is bright and the light is very sharp, it reflects on the white sandy beach and the water of the ocean, which causes the photos to appear white-washed.
There are times when it is so bright that you can hardly see the water at all. Sometimes it really looks as if you are standing on a white canvas with a little bit of sand at your feet.
The moment the sun starts to set, the light becomes softer and it is so much better and easier to see the water and the beautiful beach.
Here is an example of an session we had to do earlier in the day:
Still very beautiful but the background is more white and and the beauty of the background is lost. Or when the sun is very bright, it could be a problem for some people to enjoy since it hurts their eyes, even if they are not looking directly into the sun.
Sometimes depending on the location, we can get away with using shadows and rocky or green dunes for background, which will help to get a background in the photo.
Where a photo taken at sunset, we have a lot more background visible. The sun is softer creating beautiful sunny photos with gorgeous backgrounds.
And sometimes if we are lucky we have the beautiful pink hues of sunset.
Many people will have little ones who can’t stay up that late and that is mostly the reason why some people have a problem with going so late. And I understand that 100%, since I am a mommy too and also had to get my kids to bed a certain time. So please don’t think that I don’t want to do the sessions earlier. I will do it anytime, but I don’t want my clients to be disappointed and not understand why their photos don’t look like most of my other photos. So mostly if we really cant go at sunset I will suggest to go to a shade place, or a beach with lots of rocks to create shadows to still get some beautiful beach photos.
A place like in the woods or a garden where we can use natural shadows of trees, it usually is better to go a little earlier, since when the sun sets, it gets even darker when lots of trees is involved.
If the weather plays along and we have a cloudy day, then the clouds works as a natural buffer and light is no problem at all.
I hope this helps a little to understand the reasoning for Sunset session. But please chat to me about your needs and we can always see what the weather can do to help or the location we choose