ADVICE // 6
City Location Ideas

I LOVE shooting in cities! Whether it be big cities or small ones, there’s never a shortage of awesome backdrops, open shade and plenty of natural reflectors – the options are endless! I always try to visit my session locations a few days in advance to scout for accesible and visually interesting settings if I haven’t shot there before. But when that’s not possible, I make plans to arrive an hour before the session to drive or walk around and find a few great places for us to take pictures. Here’s my list of a possible location ideas that can be found in pretty much any city and that make awesome backdrops for photos.

• Parking Garages:  I look for ones that have cool architectural elements (like the pretty blue one below!). And if it’s pretty bright outside, I like to take pictures inside, either on the top level where the covered parking area meets the outside parking area or by the window openings.  It’s a sure way to get beautiful reflected light.

• Doors: Cities have the most fun and colorful doors! Garage doors are my favorite. For starters, they can usually accomodate an entire family and they come in a variety of fun colors.

• Alleys: Another favorite! Depending on the width of the alleys, they can be the perfect spot for open shade when it’s bright outside. They are also an easy way to get some leading lines in your images.  One thing to watch out for is red brick alleys, like the one below.  They can be a little tricky to shoot in.  Make sure that the brick walls are not bouncing a red tint on your subjects faces when shooting. I find that it tends to happen more often on really bright days.

• Walls: Blank walls, graffiti walls, ivy walls, brick walls, distressed walls….Cities have so many fantastic options! However, my personal rule is light first, background later.  Even if it’s the coolest backdrop ever, if the light isn’t ideal, I look for other alternatives and in the city, you’ll never run out of walls to use.

• Steps:  Another wonderful way to capture leading lines and to add some variety to the images with some sitting down poses. Depending on the look and feel of the shoot, I may go with something a little “grungier”  – like a fire escape steps;  or something slightly more polished  – like brownstone or a municipal building steps.

I only gave you a few ideas to get your started, but the possibilities are endless! Even though I recommend having a game plan of where you’ll be shooting before you start a session, you just never know what you’ll find in a city.  You may just happen to stumble upon something really cool and unique (like the grungy row of chairs on the sidewalk from the first picture in this post!).  Regardless of where you decide to shoot, remember that finding great light is most important and should always be your first priority. Hope you enjoyed this list…happy shooting!

More “Advice” posts can be found here.