Welcome!! Sooo I heard you are looking for some help with planning the perfect photoshoot location! You are in the PERFECT place to narrow down your options, or even think of brand new ones! You already have the places living rent free in your head, you just haven’t realized it yet!

First things first, be clear on WHAT you are hiring your photographer to do! Are you REALLYYY into film images or Super 8 video? Are you wanting digital images to be the priority? Are you wanting super professional photos with perfect light and a plain background?

Your WHAT will drastically change the direction you go in for locations! With film, you NEED light. That can be outdoor light, or it can be artificial, but you HAVE to have light for your film. If a super clean/minimal professional look is what you are after, then a studio is going to be your best bet. You will need somewhere to set up the perfect lighting, the perfect backdrop, etc. If super 8 video is your priority, you not only need adequate lighting, but the space to move! You want to move, laugh, play, swing your arms, and run around!

After you have you WHAT, it is time to think about who you are and what you enjoy. Your photos should be more than a beautiful background. They should be an extension & representation of who YOU are. Time will always keep moving on, but your images will remain unchanged. They should represent the you of here & now!

For my husband & I, this would look like an antique shop. We LOVE to go antiquing. It may not be the most conventional spot, but it feels like US. With our foster baby, we spend a lot of time at home or at the park. An in-home photo shoot would represent this season of our lives so well. The chaos of the toddler, the messy room with toys on the floor, the dogs running around, the imperfections, it is ALL us.

This would be a great time for you to sit with pen and paper, and think of where you spend your days & where you most ENJOY spending your days! This could be the coffee shop down the road, your favorite donut shop, a thrift store, the lake, your boat, etc. This looks different for every single person, and that is the entire point! Your photos don’t need to feel like someone else, they just need to feel like you.

Keep in mind: you aren’t bound by one location. Most photographers will let you start in one place and end in another. For instance, in the past I have started at a coffee shop my couple loved and then we bounced all around downtown Huntsville. The gallery had so much depth! You can absolutely have the beautiful background photos AND the ones that feel like you!

Another option you have (especially for the beautiful background photos) is to search on Pinterest. You can start very generic and type in “_______ photoshoot inspo.” You can fill the blank with whatever applies to you! Couples, family, young family, etc.

As you scroll through the inspo photos that pop up, begin paying EXTRA attention to the things you are most drawn to. Are you starting to look at/save photos outdoors or indoors? Are they in any locations that look the same? Are you seeing lots of open space and grass, cityscapes, or architecture? Are you seeing tall ceilings, dark woods, or large windows? Make note of what you are finding yourself drawn to as you scroll. Even making a “board” to save these to will help you go back and review it all at once and find similarities.

Once you have scoured through your inspo, think of locations similar to these that you may be able to use! It could be the bookstore one town over, or maybe your photographer even has an idea!

The perfect photoshoot location is exactly where you make it, and you are already doing the work to find it!

Below, you will find lotsss of unique photo locations I have pulled from the DEPTHS of my Instagram just for you! If you click on the image, it will take you to the correlating post!