Should we have a photoshoot in an urban location?

Urban locations can look great for photoshoots – interesting artifical backgrounds that give off a very contemporary type of style.

However, there are some things to consider before you fix your idea on an urban location

• we’re very much at the mercy of other people – all urban locations are public places, so they come with the added ‘benefit’ of free onlookers – we try to choose locations or times where the number of people is as low as it can be, but it’s not something any of us can control, so you need to be happy having your photoshoot in public (though in the many photoshoots we’ve done in urban locations we’ve always found ‘the public’ are a bit like spiders – your fear of them is far greater than any amount of interest they might have in you!),
• some places have land-owners who won’t let you do a photoshoot on their land until you’ve formally obtained their permission and, usually, paid them for the privilege of doing so (almost nowhere in a town or city is ‘free’ nowadays); however, we’ve carried out numerous photoshoots in urban locations and streets and have only been told to stop on two occasions, so we’re happy to do this if that’s what you’d like,
• urban environments aren’t particularly ‘child-friendly’ – you’ll find children will get bored quicker in an urban environment than indoors or in a rural location, so if you’re after a family photoshoot we’d generally advise against using an urban location,
• if you want to be able to change your outfit during the photoshoot we need to consider that in advance, so that we can plan the location accordingly – that shouldn’t stop you from having an urban location, it just means that more advance planning is required.

But please don’t take that as a list of negatives, beacuse we find

• urban locations can look fabulous,
• they can be raw and gritty, but also modern and cool at the same time,
• they can offer a great contrast against stylish clothes, or can easily complement any type of casual look,
• and often they can help us take a ‘normal’ portrait and change it into a fashion-styled photoshoot,
• so if an urban photoshoot is on your wishlist, let’s have a chat about what that means to you and how we might make it work.

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More information

Alternatively, we’ve got some more location advice on:

• Should you have an indoor or an outdoor photoshoot?
• Should we have a photoshoot in a rural location?
• Which indoor location should I choose for our photoshoot?
• otherwise you might find our urban gallery, our rural gallery, or our indoor gallery useful to see the types of photos we’ve created in these locations.