Rangefinder Magazine
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April 2000

Photographing on Location—
How to Work With What You’ve Got
Text and Photos by Helen T. Boursier

Selecting the location for your por-trait sessions depends upon several variables. The choice is ultimately a combination of what the client de-sires, where you enjoy photograph-ing, what settings are available, the time of day for the actual session and whether the client wants a for-mal or an informal mood.

During my early years as a profes-sional photographer, I allowed the client’s choice of location to be the number one consideration. On the surface, it looks like I was an ami-able photographer who wanted to please my clients. However, the real-ity is that many times the client’s choice was not the best choice. I was grateful to have the work and I did not have enough confidence (or experience) to steer the client to a better location. For example, it is particularly common on Cape Cod for every person to have a favorite beach that they fondly refer to as “our beach.” There were so many times that I arrived to discover it was extreme high tide with 15 miles per hour on-shore breezes and a five-foot-high cement wall bordering what was left of the beach. I was left to create my signature look with a less than ideal location. Now I follow the simple rule: If the client chooses the location, I choose the time. If they choose the time, I choose the location.

Now I am much more careful about going to the special locations of my clients. I ask a lot of ques-tions about the direction of the wind, the direction of the light, what structural elements are in the back-ground (i.e. houses, businesses) and how populated the location will be at the designated session time. If possible, I will scout the location in advance to make sure the location matches the client’s description. To make the extra juggling required for an “away” session, I charge twice as much for the sitting fee. It is very simple logic for the client to follow: “When I go to your location I can photograph only one session during prime time sunset light, but when I use one of my locations I am able to photograph two.”

Time of day makes or breaks an environmental portrait session. The ideal light when photographing out in the open (i.e. the middle of a Kansas wheat field or at the beach) is either dawn or dusk. The light is soft and flattering, making both the subjects and the setting look their very best. You can photograph liter-ally any location during these two time slots, and you will create beau-tiful portraits. (See photo 5) The hours in between, or particularly bright days, are much more tricky.

The only way to photograph out in the open is at dawn or dusk. Even then, if there are no clouds in the sky to diffuse the light, it can be pinpoint bright until the sun slips behind the horizon. When the light is too bright out in the open, I look for shade. On particularly clear days, typically June and September on Cape Cod, the “sweet light” at dusk can be too bright until after the sun slips behind the horizon. Instead of standing around waiting for the sun to set, I look for soft light within the chosen location. That means I look for shade! The sun was bearing down on the bow of the boat (photo 6), so I ended up doing most of the family and individual portraits at the stern in the shade of the cabin (photo 7).

The more samples you show of various backgrounds, and the more questions you ask the client before you arrive to do the portrait session, the better you will be able to match the setting to the lighting to the mood to the style portrait your client wants.

Helen T. Boursier owns a studio on Cape Cod, Mass. where she spe-cializes in black and white portraits of families and children. She is the author of a dozen books on photog-raphy, including her upcoming re-lease with Amherst Media, Black and White Portraits of Children (winter 2000). For information, fax Helen at (508) 540-6243.


1. When you frequently photograph at a particular location, you learn to discover how to use every square foot of the setting. I took this photograph on a windy day in September in the parking lot of a local beach. The dune to the left blocks the wind, and the cars are just off camera to the right.
2. This privately owned garden is open to the public. There are hun-dreds of thousands of daffodils bloom-ing here in April, making it a popular place to visit spring. The flowers make it breathtaking, but all the trees and structures can make the background too busy for portraits.
3. When you are faced with a busy background, the best choice is to iso-late a small area that eliminates ob-jects sticking out of the subject(s) head(s). The other tactic is to create an illustrative image that shows the entire setting.
4. When dense fog and a strong on-shore breeze arrive just before the scheduled session, all you can do is reschedule or scramble to a new loca-tion. This client opted to scramble. Since I was an hour away from the studio, it was up to the client to choose the location. We moved to her friend’s summer cottage, and I used the beautiful hydrangea bushes as the backdrop.
5.
6–8. When my clients cannot decide between two locations, usually their home or a nearby park or beach, I am happy to photograph at both loca-tions. I start with the setting that will have some flexibility with lighting and background, usually their home. Then I work to show as much variety within the setting as possible. It would have been easier to create the individual portraits of all three children at one location, but it is more interesting to choose three different backgrounds that each reflects the age and per-sonality of the child being pho-tographed.