When is the best time for outdoor family photos?

February 2, 2024

There’s a few things to think about when picking a time for your outdoor family photos. If you’ve got young children there’s naps and bedtime to consider and that’s not even considering weekend sports, work and other commitments.

As well as the rhythms and routines of your family life, I want you to consider one more important thing when selecting the time and location for your family photos and that is the light.

Considering the light

Whilst sessions held at mid morning and mid afternoon can be fantastic for the kids and their energy levels, taking photos on a sunny day when the sun is high in the sky can mean that the light is hard, causes shadows and squinting.

During the summer months when the days are longer, the sun is high in the sky for longer and it can mean that sessions need to be held either first thing in the morning (I like to aim for no later than 9am over the summer) or later in the early evening. Unfortunately this can be a challenge with younger children and bed times.

In later Spring, Autumn (once daylight savings has started) and Winter, it’s much easier to have your photos taken with the sun lower in the sky without having to keep the kids up too late. Early Autumn in particular is fantastic as the weather is still warmish, yet the sun sets around 6pm.

For those of you wanting outdoor family photos over the summer months, the compromise is to select a location that has shade. This would usually be a garden or a location with lots of big trees or hedges that give shade and to have the session earlier in the day or as late into the evening as you can manage with your routine.

what does harsh light look like

It can be hard to picture what harsh light (sun up high) looks like so here are a few examples of photos taken for my son’s birthday. It was around 11am in mid September. We set up under a gum tree with a little shade but it was impossible to find a spot where the sun wasn’t peeking through a little.

When the sun is high in the sky the light is bright and can cause shadows and bright spots on the people in the photos. It can also mean that you feel the need to squint if it’s a particularly sunny day.

In the shade, the light that comes through the canopy can make patterns and shadows on the body and face like in the photo on the left. This look is quite dramatic and artistic. It can also be used to our advantage like in the photo on the right where the crocheted cloth is used to create patterns and light on my son’s face.

Harsh light can be beautiful for your outdoor family photos, but if you are investing in a gallery of photos, harsh light may mean that some family members will have their eyes shut or squinted in your photos, children may find it hard to concentrate and look at the camera and your photos won’t have a soft, glowy look.

what does soft light look like

Soft light happens when the sun is low in the sky. It’s sometimes called golden hour which is the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. On days that are overcast, the light can also be soft as the sun isn’t able to peek through the clouds and cause shadows or contrasting light.

When there is soft light we can also achieve the look in the photo on the left. This is when the sun is glowing in the background. It is called backlighting. In this photo there weren’t many clouds so the sun is quite bright in the right hand side corner. These family photos were taken in late December around 7:45pm.

In the photo above left, it was Autumn and it was cloudy. It was during golden hour and although the sun is still behind the mum and her daughter, the light glows more and is more dispersed because of the clouds.

This photo was taken in January at around 6:30pm. It was about an hour before golden hour, but it was extremely overcast so the light was soft and there were no shadows. We also had the entire beach to ourselves!

Unfortunately it’s impossible to predict whether the day of your family photos will be overcast, a little cloudy or bright and sunny, so it’s best to make plans with what we are in control of.

Picking a location for your family photos with plenty of shade
Choosing your session time as close to golden hour as possible or within the golden hour window

In this photo session, we started around 9am and it was very sunny. We planned for this with a location that has lots of shade and we moved around the gardens to accommodate for that. In some of the photos we used the contrast of the light and I positioned the family in the small pockets of shade and then we used the big trees to soften the light to get photos of the girls playing.

If we had chosen a location for these outdoor family photos like the beach, the result would have been much different than the soft light that we could find in the park.

when is golden hour throughout the year?

In Melbourne, you’ll find golden hour at approximately these times throughout the seasons:

Summer: 6:30am – 7:30am and 7:30pm – 8:30 pm

Autumn: 7:30am – 8:30am and 6:00pm – 7:00pm

Winter: 7:30am – 8:30am and 3:45pm -4:45pm

Spring: 6:30am – 7:30am and 4:45pm – 6:45pm

Also keep in mind daylight savings when the times jump by an hour. The closer you have your outdoor family photos taken during these times, the softer the light will be.

how to pick the right time for me?

If the thought of keeping the kids up late feels stressful – I totally understand that. I have two young boys myself and our bedtime routine is golden! Let’s pick a morning session and a location with shade so then we’ve got kids who are happy to play and be in the photos and I’ll take care of finding the shade!

Of course, if you like the harsher light look (I chose to embrace it rather than go into the bushland near home like I usually do for my son’s birthday photos) then we can do that too, I just want you to have a visual idea of what that will look like before we set the location and date for your outdoor family photos!