Florence Photoshoots

Locations

Where to shoot in Florence

The Duomo is the reason most people come, and it is harder than it looks. The piazza is tight, the cathedral is enormous, and from close range you cannot fit the dome in the frame. Your photographer works the angles that do — Via dei Servi for the dome straight down the street, the corner by the Baptistery, and the steps opposite the facade.

Piazzale Michelangelo is the other Florence: the whole city laid out below with the dome, the Palazzo Vecchio tower and the Arno bridges in one frame. It is a climb or a short taxi, and it faces west, so it is a sunset location rather than a morning one.

The classics route takes in Ponte Vecchio, the Uffizi colonnade, Piazza della Signoria and the lanes of the Oltrarno across the river. The Oltrarno is where Florence stops performing — workshops, washing lines, far fewer people.

Timing

Sunrise is not a suggestion here

Florence has a day-tripper rhythm that matters more than the season. Coaches arrive from Rome and the coast mid-morning and the centre fills within the hour. By eleven the Duomo piazza is a slow-moving crowd and stays that way until late afternoon.

The hour after sunrise is a genuinely different city. The piazza is close to empty, the stone is warm rather than bleached, and you can stand where you like. It is the single biggest thing you can do for the photographs.

The other window is the last hour of light at Piazzale Michelangelo, which faces west over the city. It is busy too, but the terrace is wide enough that it does not matter in the way the Duomo does.

Middle of the day is the one to avoid. High sun in a city of pale stone and narrow streets gives you harsh shadows and blown highlights.

Planning

How much you can cover on foot

Florence is small. You can walk from the Duomo to Ponte Vecchio in seven minutes and across to the Oltrarno in ten. That makes it one of the easier cities to combine locations in a single session.

Thirty minutes is one setting done properly — the cathedral, or the Ponte Vecchio and the riverside, or a stretch of the Oltrarno.

An hour comfortably covers the Duomo, Piazza della Signoria and Ponte Vecchio, because they sit in a line a few hundred metres apart.

Piazzale Michelangelo is the exception. It is across the river and up a hill, about twenty-five minutes on foot from the centre or ten by taxi. Combining it with the centre in one session needs ninety minutes and a decision about how you get up there.

What to wear

What to wear

Florence is pale stone, terracotta and ochre. Deep colours stand out well against it — navy, burgundy, forest green, black. Pale neutrals can disappear into the background in strong light.

The streets are cobbled and uneven, and the Oltrarno lanes more so. Piazzale Michelangelo involves either a long ramp or a flight of steps. Bring something you can walk in.

If you are shooting at the cathedral, bear in mind that the churches themselves require shoulders and knees covered. That does not apply outdoors, but it is worth knowing if you plan to go inside afterwards.

Summer is hot and the stone holds it. Linen and loose fits photograph better than anything heavy between June and September.

Season

When to come

April to early June and September into October are the best conditions: warm, long days, and the light stays usable for several hours either side of the middle.

July and August are genuinely hot — regularly above thirty-five degrees — and the centre is at its most crowded. Early morning stops being the ideal option and becomes the only sensible one.

November to February is cold and quiet, and the quiet is the point. The Duomo piazza in January is a different experience from the same piazza in July, and the low winter sun suits the stone.

Florence is in a river valley and gets morning mist in autumn and winter. From Piazzale Michelangelo looking down on a city with the dome rising out of it, that is a photograph worth planning around.