The right time of day can make a building shine in a new way. How do we plan that timing to yield the best results?
When deciding the best time of day to photograph a building, the location is our first consideration. North-facing façades often suffer from a lack of good direct sunlight, so we shoot those assignments at twilight to add visual interest and eliminate the shadows that would be there during a daytime shoot.
Daylight illuminates the external features of this building, but it also creates strong shadows.
Shooting the same building at twilight eliminates those shadows in favor of glowing city lights.
Twilight shooting isn’t just for north-facing buildings, either. Busy city lights and backyard bonfires glow even more when shot at twilight.
In contrast, indoor spaces can look warmer and more inviting when peak-hour sunlight is streaming in from the windows.
This vaulted ceiling throws quite a few intriguing shadows in bright daylight.
Location, context, weather, and other factors help us determine the best time to schedule a shoot.
Sometimes it’s also worth it to schedule a second shoot for a different time of day or set of conditions. For instance, we shot these exterior light fixtures primarily during the day to show them more clearly, but we later returned to take a few nighttime drone shots that would highlight the lights’ appearance “in action.”
Time for a drone closeup: daytime to show the fixtures, and nighttime to highlight the glow.