A building doesn’t move, but the light on it does, and the best of it comes on some days and not others. So rather than booking a fixed date, I ask for a range of days that work for you and pick the one with the best forecast.

Where the light lands

The first thing I need is exactly where the building is and which way it faces. That tells me where and when the light will hit the part of the building that matters most.

I wrote the software that works this out. GetOutCast takes the building’s location and the part of it that matters, and scores the sun on that part for the days ahead, along with the weather.

The weather

For exteriors, and for interiors with a view outside, I look for days with little wind, so trees don’t blur and bracketed frames don’t ghost. I also want some clouds for interest, but not too many.

The difference clouds make shows best in two photographs from years before the software existed. After college I went out to photograph almost every night, and the Huguenot Bridge was a regular stop. One week in early January I went four times. It started with this:

The James River from the Huguenot Bridge at dusk under heavy cloud, with only a thin band of light at the horizon
Before

And on a later trip, this:

The river from the bridge on a later evening, with scattered clouds lit red and orange and reflected in the water
After

Wasted trips like the first one are what got me writing forecasting software. The rest of that story is on the About page.

Inside

Indoors it depends on the room. A room that gets direct sun is timed for it, because the sun decides what the windows are doing. A room with no windows, or no sun, can be photographed any day.

Twilight

For twilight, all I need is a clear evening. The blue of twilight does the work, so the main thing is that it isn’t overcast or raining.

Drone days

Wind matters more when the drone is up. It has to fly safely and hold still for bracketed frames, so the wind limit is stricter than on the ground.

Aerial view at dusk of a large white farmhouse with a dark metal roof, a detached garage, a pool and a long curving drive, its windows and landscape lights glowing
From the drone, on an evening the forecast picked

What it means for your shoot

Give me a range of days that work for you. We usually settle on the date and time the week before, with the weather as part of that check, and bad weather has never derailed a shoot. The rest of how a shoot runs is in what a shoot involves.