A free tool · no enquiry required
The three best times to photograph your wedding.
Most couples build their timeline around the meal and hope the light works out. It's much easier the other way round. Put your date and venue in below and this will tell you exactly when the good light happens on your day, so you can plan around it rather than react to it.
Why three windows and not one
The short versionStraight after the ceremony
Everyone is together, nobody has drifted off yet, and the emotion is still right at the surface. The light is usually the harshest it will be all day, which is a trade worth making. This is when family groups happen and when I take you away for ten minutes while the adrenaline is still going.
The soft hour
The window most couples have never heard of and the one I would fight for. The sun has dropped enough to lose its edge but is still high enough to be properly directional, so faces are lit rather than flattened. In midsummer it lands after the meal. In spring it can be before the ceremony has even finished, which is exactly why guessing does not work.
Golden hour
The famous one. The last stretch before the sun goes, when everything turns warm and long and slightly unreal. Twenty minutes is all it takes, most couples slip out between courses, and it is where the photographs that end up on the wall tend to come from.
Questions
About this toolHow accurate is this?
The sun’s position is calculated properly rather than estimated, and it is accurate to within about a minute. What it cannot know is your weather. A flat grey day removes golden hour entirely and makes the soft hour barely different from the rest of the afternoon. That is not a problem, it just changes where I put you and how I shoot it.
Do we have to use all three windows?
No. Most couples use two: a short burst after the ceremony while everyone is together, then twenty minutes at either the soft hour or golden hour depending on where the meal lands. Three is a luxury, not a requirement.
Our venue faces the wrong way. Does that matter?
Less than you would think. The tool tells you when, and knowing when is most of the battle. Where to stand is my job, and it is why I would rather visit or research your venue properly before the day. The venue guides go into this in detail for the places I know well.
What about winter weddings?
Everything compresses. In December in the North East the sun never gets much above fifteen degrees, so the whole day is effectively soft light, and golden hour can arrive before your meal has started. Winter weddings are genuinely lovely to photograph, they just need the timeline built differently. Put a December date in above and you will see what I mean.
Can I use this for a venue you have not photographed?
Yes, and please do. Pick the nearest option or drop in coordinates for anywhere in the world. It is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and you are welcome to use it whether or not you ever speak to me.
Currently booking 2027
Want a timeline built around all this properly?
Every couple I photograph gets a full day plan built with them, working backwards from the light rather than forwards from the meal. Tell me your date and I'll check I'm free.
Check your date