The best time of day to take photos in London

The single biggest thing you control about how your London photographs look is not the location, the outfit or the camera. It is what time you walk out of the hotel.

London sits further north than almost anyone expects — level with the middle of Canada. That has two consequences: the days swing wildly between summer and winter, and the sun stays low in the sky for most of the year, which is very good news for photographs.

The short answer

• The first hour after sunrise. Best light, empty streets, no queue at the phone boxes. This is the one we push for.
• The last hour before sunset. Same light, but the landmarks are busy.
• Any overcast day, any time. Cloud is a softbox the size of the sky.
• After dark in winter. Lit buildings, Christmas lights, wet pavement.

The one to avoid is bright midday sun in June and July: it comes from overhead, puts shadows in the eye sockets and makes everyone squint.

What sunrise actually costs you by month

These are approximate London times, and the point is not the exact minute but the shape of the year:

• December and January: sunrise around 8am, sunset before 4pm. Civilised. You can have breakfast first and still shoot the best light of the day.
• March and October: sunrise around 6.30–7am. The sweet spot — good light at a reasonable hour.
• June and July: sunrise before 5am, sunset after 9pm. The evening session is the practical one; the light stays soft for a long time.
• September: our favourite month here. Warm light, low sun, and the summer crowds have gone home.

Why winter is underrated

People apologise for booking in January. They should not. The sun never climbs high, so you get that long raking light all day, the parks are empty, the lights are still up in the first half of the month, and the air is clear in a way it never is in August.

It is cold, and we plan for that: shorter walks between spots, a coat you can take off for two minutes at a time, and somewhere warm at the end.

Grey is not bad weather

A flat white sky worries people and it should not. Even light means no harsh shadows, no squinting, skin that reads smoothly, and stone and brick that keep their colour. Some of the strongest photographs we have taken in this city were made under a sky with nothing in it.

What we do change is the background. Under a blank sky we avoid wide open horizons and work with things that have texture — arches, railings, wet pavement, bridges — so the frame has something to hold on to.

The crowd clock

Light is only half of it. The other half is how many people are standing in your photograph. Roughly, at Westminster and the South Bank:

• Sunrise to 8am: a handful of runners. This is the window.
• 8 to 9am: the first tour groups arrive.
• 10am onwards: queues at the phone boxes, and the bridge is shoulder to shoulder.
• After sunset: it thins out again, and everything is lit.

So when should you book?

If you can face one early alarm on your trip, make it the photoshoot. You get the light and the empty city in the same hour, and you are back at the hotel for breakfast with the day still ahead of you.

If that is genuinely not happening on your holiday, take the last hour before sunset and let us pick the locations around it — there are plenty of spots where an evening crowd does not matter.