It’s no secret I’m a fan of golden hour light. The more peachy/salmon/orange/ocher the better, as far as I’m concerned.
Since I do most of my sessions entirely with natural light, I usually schedule outdoor portrait sessions to overlap with golden hour at one end of the day or the other. It used to be that the vast majority of my sessions took place at sunset, but over the last year, I’ve done more and more sunrise sessions — and now, my sessions are pretty evenly split between sunrise and sunset. So I figured I would share my pros and cons when it comes to sunrise vs. sunset sessions.

A lot of the time, it just comes down to personal preference, location accessibility, and schedule availability. Beyond that, here are my tips for figuring out which end of daylight you’d prefer for your portrait backdrop.

When to shoot at sunrise:

• If the forecast calls for inclement weather later in the day (common in Florida during the warm months)
• If your preferred location will be much more crowded at sunset (standard at beaches)
• If your shoot involves little children who typically go to sleep before sunset (this is only a consideration during Daylight Savings Hours)
• If your location showcases the sunrise beautifully but doesn’t offer a good view of the sunset
• If your schedule doesn’t allow for a sunset session

When to shoot at sunset:

• If your preferred location isn’t open to the public before sunrise (common in state parks, some municipal parks)
• If your preferred location showcases the sunset beautifully but doesn’t offer a good view of the sunrise
• If you are truly not a morning person, or if your kids are cranky early in the day
• If you’re having professional hair and makeup done and can’t schedule a stylist early enough (though I have had stylists go to my clients’ homes to prep for sunrise sessions)

But, when all is said and done, if you don’t know when a shoot took place, can you really tell the difference between sunrise(ish) and sunset(ish) light? Both are gorgeous. Take a look below . . . and see if you can tell which pictures happened when! (And if you want to keep score, I’ll list the answers at the end, starting with the picture at the very top of the post.)

~Laura

Answers:

Sunset
Sunset
Sunrise
Sunrise
Sunset
Sunrise
Sunrise
Sunset
Sunset
Sunrise
Sunset
Sunset
Sunset
Sunrise