The Best Months To Photograph In New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Month by month: the light, the heat, the rain and the events that decide whether an outdoor shoot works.
New Orleans has two comfortable stretches and two difficult ones, and knowing which is which decides more about a shoot than any other single factor.
October through early December is the best window. The humidity breaks, the light turns long and clean, and outdoor portraits are comfortable from mid-afternoon onward. It is also the busiest stretch for weddings, which means venues and dates go early.
March through May is the second window. Everything is in bloom, the oaks are full, and temperatures are workable. Spring brings fast-moving rain, so an indoor alternative for every outdoor location is worth having.
June through September is hot and humid, with afternoon thunderstorms most days. Outdoor work moves to the first and last hour of daylight, and everything in between happens inside or in deep shade. Summer sessions are entirely possible — they just need to be scheduled around the heat rather than through it.
January and February are cool and often grey, which is genuinely flattering light for portraits. The complication is Carnival: the weeks before Mardi Gras close streets, fill the Quarter and make parade routes unusable for anything else. Any shoot in that stretch gets planned around the parade schedule.
Whatever the month, the last ninety minutes of daylight is the reliable answer for outdoor work in this city.