How many times have you seen an image and thought “WOW! That location is SO beautiful!!!”

My seniors and couples used to have such a hard time choosing their locations until I realized…of course, they’re having a hard time –– they don’t see things like I do!

There is SO much that goes into a good location and it’s usually not what you would see if you didn’t have a photographer’s eye. Things like light (this is the biggest factor!!!), color, textures, angles, etc.

When I am scouting for locations and walking around during shoots I am considering ALL of these things. My clients used to be surprised when I would suggest strange, not-so-pretty-to-the-eye locations –– thankfully now they trust me!!

I got the idea for this post during Caroline’s senior session this past spring when I suggested using a white fence I saw while driving down the road. We walked over, I directed Caroline, and showed her mom the back of the camera.

“WOW! I was NOT expecting that! It’s so dark over here I wasn’t quite sure what it was going to look like but WOW.”

We talked about how the light coming through the branches softened it just enough to still give us some POP but not overwhelm, how the white fence made the image clean and free of distractions, and how the access to the open sky allowed for plenty of clean light on Caroline’s face.

They had no idea all of those things were factors in creating that image! I mentioned that I should do a post with all of the iphone “behind the scenes” photos of my shoots compared with the final image. They thought it was such a good idea and would be super helpful to educate future clients!!

So here are a few iphone photos of either the location or of me shooting paired with the final image!!

Which one is your favorite?!