How Weather and Time of Year Will Affect the Final Look Your Photos

I’ve been doing photography for 11 years and one thing that I learned very quickly is that no two shoots will look the same! There are many factors that affect the final look of your photos (such as weather, time of year, and time of day) and I’d love to dive into these more with you and explain why.

Your photographer can use the same preset on every single shoot, you can even go to the exact same location as one you saw on their feed, but no two shoots will look the exact same.

Think about this.

Look at your front yard in the morning. Now look at it in the evening. It’s the same location. But the lighting is different, the shadows have moved. No amount of editing will make it look how it looked in the morning. This is why it matters when your photographer tells you what locations look best at sunrise vs sunset. Direction of the sun matters! Direction of the sun will determine if the photos are more glowy or more contrasted. There’s nothing wrong with either look – it just depends on what you like!

Here’s an example of the same location at different times of day. The photo on the left was taken at sunrise in March, and the photo on the right was taken at sunset in June.

Now look at your front yard in January vs June. Same location. Maybe even the same time of day. But your yard is going to look completely different. The grass is a different color, the trees have leaves. The weather will be different, the lighting will be different. Because did you know that the sun shifts slightly where it sets throughout the year? This changes the shadows, where and how early the sun tucks behind the mountain, etc.

Here’s the same location as above, but at sunrise in February.

The photo above is also a great example of how weather also affects the final look of your photos. Look at your yard on a cloudy day. No harsh shadows, everything might look a little flat or even a little grey. Now look at your yard on a sunny day. Harsh shadows, bright colors, hazy sun in the background. Weather is going to affect the final look of your photos greatly.

Here’s another side by side example of weather affecting the final look of your photos. The photo on the left was taken at about 10am in April, but we had thick cloud cover. The photo on the right is at the same location, but at 1:30pm on a sunny, hot day in June.

So if you see a shoot on Instagram that you love, understand that achieving the exact same location, time of day, time of year, and weather for your shoot isn’t likely – so every shoot varies slightly and is unique. But this is why you hire a photographer who you trust, whose style you love. A photographer who can shoot in any lighting situation. And take their recommendations on what locations are good for that time of year and what time of day the lighting will be best!

If you want to see more examples of my work in various locations and lighting situations, click here!