Great Question! The amount of time needed for your session depends on several variables and the style of images you are looking for.
Indoor Sessions
Indoor sessions are either done on location, typically in your home, office, or a professional photography studio that allows space for backdrops and other larger props that typically can’t be fit or staged in a home. For modeling or fine art types of images, a professional studio works the best as this allows the photographer to control every aspect of the lighting through the use of a wide range of specialized studio lights, lighting modifiers, and gels to achieve the look and emotion desired. Sessions that take place indoors generally don’t have a restriction on the time of day due to the studio lights being used, however if you’re looking to have natural light portraits through the use of a window this is typically done best in the mid/late afternoon when there’s plenty of beautiful sunlight still in the sky.
For indoor sessions, each lighting and backdrop changeover can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes due to the time needed to dial in the lighting setup to achieve the perfect results. Therefore if you are looking for more than two settings/setups I would expect a session to last 45-60 minutes if not longer. For 1-2 settings/setups, 30 minutes would be adequate. Look through the gallery below to see some of my recent indoor studio work.
Outdoor Sessions
Outdoor sessions require specific timing to achieve the best light for the day. In the photography world, the best photos are taken during ‘golden hour’ which is considered the hour after sunrise, and the hour before sunset. If you are thinking of booking an hour session and the sun will set at 7:00 PM, then I would advise scheduling your session to start at 5:45 PM to end around 6:45 PM. Depending on the look and feel of the photos you are looking for, studio lighting can be incorporated to provide a controlled, specific look even in an outdoor setting. See below for some of my recent outdoor session images.
Scene & Outfit Changes
When considering an outdoor session, the two big variables are the number of scenes/locations, and the number of outfit changes. When photographing a family, there are a number of grouping and poses that you will want to have photographed in each location, and this can add a bit time. For example a family of four we’ll want to shoot images of everyone together, the kids together, the parents together, each parent with the kid, etc. For the larger group sizes there are more of these combinations that need to be worked through which needs to be considered. If you are doing a session by yourself or for a senior portrait session, it’s very reasonable to move through 2-3 scenes in a 30 minute session if the locations are close together.
For outfit changes, plan to add 5-10 minutes for each outfit change. You’ll also need to consider the location of the session as not all locations have restroom facilities. I can certainly help out with recommendations, if you are interested you can read some of my location recommendations at the following link: Top 5 Portrait Locations in Indianapolis.
My Recommendations
1 outfit studio session for a family or individual. Perfect for fashion sessions or influencer sessions.
1 outdoor setting for a family session
1 setting / 1 outfit outdoor senior portrait session
Great for 2 or more outdoor settings for a family session
2 outfit changes for a senior portrait session, maternity session, or portrait studio session
Couples or engagement session
Creative modeling / artistic fine art studio sessions
3 outfit changes for a senior portrait session, maternity session, or portrait session
Lifestyle session in your home
Photographing an event or activity
Longer events, lifestyle sessions, or corporate sessions
Portrait or studio sessions where four outfit changes are needed
Lifestyle session in the home
Conclusion
As noted above there’s quite a few considerations to make when thinking about your next photography session. When it comes to professional photography, the planning and thought that goes into the session ahead of time often dictates how well the images turn out!
