Low Light Indoor Favorites and Why You Should Book a Lifestyle Home Session

With less daylight and more indoor time, winter is the perfect time for low light photos. Read more to see my favorites from January's low light challenge and why you should book an in-home lifestyle session with En To Phos.

With all of the time at home due to COVID, I was ready to burn all of our screens with the start of the New Year. I was talked down from that ledge but I have gone back to the general idea that boredom is not our enemy, and my kids have remembered how to play and find joy in reading.

My kids are used to me pulling out my camera and asking them to turn off the lights. Finding ways to document these days of ours with available light and creativity has sparked, yet again, a new inspiration that I need in these cold winter months. 

So many people will not choose to book an in-home lifestyle session because they worry about having to clean a space that they actually live in or that their house doesn't look like all of the Instagram influencer's trendy spaces. Well, I am here to tell you that those things don't matter. One of the benefits of an En To Phos in-home lifestyle session is my session guide; all of my booked clients receive a session guide that walks you through how to choose what to wear, what you should and should not concern yourself with before, during and after your session in regard to your house (that may look like you live in it), what to do with kiddos in the shoot, and how to connect for the best images.

Often times, your home will have more than adequate light for a photo session. It's all about finding the light, whatever the source, and positioning you (that's my job), and then changing perspective to tell the best story.  My clients are most often willing to at least try what I propose, which has led to funny moments (genuine smiles) and favorite moments in a photo. While I love to capture connection (it's one of my main goals in a session), another big focus is documenting personality details in an attractive manner. Enter catchlights.

Amiright? A few years ago, I took a class on indoor lighting and it blew my mind. What I love about low light photography is how you can highlight a subject (my daughter) and a subject's features, while all else falls into the shadows. These images of my daughter, Joy, are from several years ago while I took said class and they are some of my favorite; her hair was still deciding how it wanted to grow in and her fingers were holding onto that two-year-old chubbiness. It seems like my kids are growing up so fast and I want to remember these details, but I also want to share these details about my kids with them as they grow.

But what do we do in our house for a lifestyle session? Cuddle of course! Or bake. Or read a book. Basically, you do what you normally do with some direction from me. My daughter loves to twirl in her favorite dress so I ask her to do that in front of the window. My boys love to play with legos and read or wrestle, so they do that...everywhere. Baking is maybe one of my favorite activities to document in low light because of all the different textures and the mess it makes (you're welcome).

Whatever it is that you enjoy doing together, tell me about that. Have it documented. I love a beautifully styled family photo in sunset-lit field of tall grass or flowers. And these are beautiful moments I capture every year for families. But it's a highlight moment and you are living in the day to day moments with your people. Why not capture that as well? 

Before I let you go, here are some of my favorites from January's low light challenge in my own home. Enjoy and I hope to hear from you soon.