Category : Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia is the easiest city in this series to plan an outdoor block in, and the reason is its street plan. Center City is a strict grid oriented close to the compass, which means the east-west streets take low sun straight down their whole length while the north-south streets do not — a fact that can be read off a map rather than discovered on foot. That matters more than it sounds: at a hotel or a museum where the portrait block has twenty minutes in it, knowing in advance which street will be lit turns an excursion from a gamble into a walk.

The one exception is the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which runs diagonally across that grid, so it takes low sun at an angle no other street does — and because it is tree-lined it also carries continuous canopy shade along its length, which makes it both the reliable raking-light position and the reliable midday shade for every venue on or near it.

The second Philadelphia fact is material colour, and it changes the colour of a face here more than most photographers expect. Red brick bounces warm and flatters skin; pale limestone, marble and modern glass bounce neutral-to-cool and can render it slightly grey. Several venues in this list are clad in the cool kind — the museums, the converted bank, the modern institutions — which means the warm material is across the street rather than on the building, and a warm gel or a warm reflector is worth carrying specifically.

The white marble steps that front so many Philadelphia rowhouses are the useful corollary: they act as low reflectors, bouncing light up into a face to fill the shadow overhead sun creates, which makes a frame on them located and lit at the same time. Cobbles in the older quarters give strong texture in raking light and a genuine trip hazard in heels.

And the four seasons here are four real ones: humid summers with common afternoon thunderstorms, which favour the sealed venues; the clearest air of the year in autumn, which matters for any frame looking out from a height; and short December days with sunset in the middle of the afternoon, which can move the dusk crossing to before the ceremony rather than after it. Snow is the compensation and it is the best natural fill there is — though against pale limestone it will clip if the exposure is not watched.