Why Autumn Is the Best Time for Your Brand Photoshoot

Can I make a confession before we talk about your autumn brand photoshoot?

I’m writing this from Nashville, where it’s 33 degrees outside, and I’m sitting in an air conditioned house fantasising about drizzle. Actual London drizzle. A coat. Wet leaves stuck to my boots in Richmond Park. I never thought I’d miss it this much. (Ian says I’ve gone quite mad.)

Nashville is a wonderful place to be homesick in, mind you. There’s music coming out of every doorway, and anyone who knows me knows that’s basically my natural habitat. But all that heat has made me realise something I’ve felt for years without ever saying out loud.

Autumn is the best time of year for a brand photoshoot in London. And most people walk straight past it.

Everyone waits for January

Here’s what usually happens. The first week of January arrives, and suddenly everyone needs new photos. A new website, a new role, a LinkedIn profile that looks like it belongs to a slightly younger, slightly more tired version of them.

The light outside at that point is doing its very best impression of a grey filing cabinet.

So this is my gentle nudge. Don’t wait. I’m back in London on the 23rd, and September is already fully booked (thank you, lovely people). But October, beautiful October, still has a few dates, and I cannot wait to get outside with a camera and some new faces.

The light is kinder

Out here, the sun is relentless. It flattens everything. Summer in London can do the same, and the most flattering light turns up at about nine in the evening, which is lovely unless you have a life.

In autumn the sun sits lower all day. It’s softer and warmer, and it wraps around faces instead of bouncing off foreheads. Golden hour arrives at a genuinely civilised time, so you can finish work, meet us in the park, and walk away glowing. Even an overcast October afternoon gives us gentle, even light that skin absolutely loves.

(Ian will happily talk to you about light for forty minutes. I’ll stop him at ten. That’s the system, and after all these years it works.)

The colour does half the work

Russet leaves, deep greens, that honey tone on old brick. Autumn brings a warmth to every frame that we never have to fake in the edit. It feels grounded and human, not polished and staged, which is exactly how I want people to feel when they see themselves.

We always shoot on location, so we get to use all of it. My favourite in autumn has to be Richmond. The park, the green, the whole place turns gold and just looks beautiful. It’s a completely different world in October.

Layers bring the cosiness

A good coat, a soft jumper, a scarf wrapped up against the chill. Layers bring a cosiness to photos that’s hard to find at any other time of year. There’s texture in every frame, and it’s so evocative of the season you can almost feel the crisp air.

They give you variety too, so one shoot can give you images that feel like different days and different sides of you.

Your photos arrive before everyone else starts looking

The practical bit. Shoot in October and your images are with you well before Christmas. When January comes and everyone else is scrambling, you’re already there, with a fresh headshot on LinkedIn and a bank of photos ready for the year.

It’s a small head start. Small head starts have a habit of adding up.

“But what about the weather?”

It’s London. It will rain, possibly on purpose.

But we plan for it. We keep covered spots up our sleeve, we check the forecast with an intensity that borders on unhealthy, and we’ll move your date if the day looks properly miserable. A little drizzle, though? Right now I’d pay good money for some. And some of my favourite images have come from a damp afternoon, a borrowed umbrella, and a client who stopped worrying about their hair and just started laughing.

The music

Before every shoot, we ask what music you love and put it on. It’s one of my favourite parts of the day.

If you’re wondering what I’d choose for an autumn shoot, it’s Harvest Moon by Neil Young. Every time. Put that on in Richmond Park in late October, with the light going soft and the leaves coming down, and I defy anyone to stay stiff in front of a camera.

That’s usually when the real photos happen.

If you’ve been meaning to do this

Almost everyone I photograph tells me they’ve put it off for a year, sometimes two. The weight, the hair, the website that isn’t finished yet. I understand every single one of those reasons. I’ve used most of them myself.

But the season won’t wait, October dates won’t either, and the version of you that exists right now is worth photographing.

If you’re not sure where to start with your autumn brand photoshoot, complete our Session Picker quiz.

Or if you’d rather talk it through, book a free 30 minute Image Audit and Consultation call with me. No pressure, just a chat about what you need.

Right. I’m going to go and stand in front of the air conditioning and think about yellow, red and orange leaves.

See you in the park.

Sadia