Lisbon Photoshoot Locations, Hour by Hour

Most lists of Lisbon photo spots are lists of places. The list matters less than the clock. The same viewpoint is empty at seven and has forty people on it at nine in July, and a spot that is lit from the front at sunrise is a silhouette at sunset. This is where we take people, in the order the light allows, and what each place needs.

Why the time decides the place

Lisbon faces south-west onto the Tagus. The hills of Alfama and Graça hold usable light from sunrise until about nine and then go flat. The riverfront from Cais do Sodré to Belém looks the other way and only becomes worth the walk after six. Getting that backwards is the most common way a session here is wasted, and it costs nothing to get right.

The other thing that decides the plan is distance. The historic centre is small: Graça to Portas do Sol to Alfama is twenty minutes on foot, so a ninety-minute session can take in three different backdrops without anyone getting into a car. Belém is the exception, twenty minutes away by tram.

Morning locations

Miradouro da Senhora do Monte

The highest of the viewpoints, and the only one that still has the city to itself at seven in the morning. It looks south-west over the castle, so at sunrise the light is behind you and falls on the view. This is the default for a Lisbon photoshoot, and the reason is simple: at that hour it is usually just you, the photographer and someone walking a dog. At nine in July there is no frame left without a crowd in it.

Escolas Gerais, Alfama

The street that tram 28 climbs, and the photograph almost everyone has in mind. It works in the first hour of service and not afterwards: by nine the tram is full of people going to work, and standing in the road with equipment is simply in their way. The photographs worth having are of the tram passing, not taken on board. Tram 12 runs a shorter loop over the same streets and is far quieter. For a short session, this is an alternative to the viewpoint rather than an addition to it.

Portas do Sol

The viewpoint from the famous photograph, over the Alfama roofs to the river. It is a wonderful place, but it faces the wrong way for the morning and is crowded by mid-morning, so it rarely comes first in the plan. In a longer session it fits as a stop on the walk between Graça and Alfama.

Praça do Comércio

Open to the river on one side and arcaded on the other three, so it is one of the few places in the city with clean light and no hill. Empty at six in the morning; from mid-morning it is the busiest square in Portugal. It also works in the half hour after sunset.

Belém: Jerónimos and the Padrão dos Descobrimentos

A completely different city: flat, wide and monumental. The exterior needs nothing but an early start, before eight, ahead of the coaches. The cloister is ticketed, and a commercial shoot inside needs written permission arranged in advance.

Evening locations

Doca de Santo Amaro and the 25 de Abril bridge

Directly under the bridge, looking west down the river. This is the counterweight to the viewpoints: useless in the morning, and the best thing in the city at seven in the evening in September. If evenings are all you have, a Lisbon session becomes a riverside session here, not a hilltop one at the wrong hour.

Praça do Comércio after sunset

The half hour after the sun goes down, when the square is lit evenly and the river behind it holds the colour. It is a different location from the docks, so an evening session picks one or the other.

What time is sunrise and sunset in Lisbon

Times on the 15th of each month, rounded to five minutes. The usable morning starts at sunrise; the usable evening is the last hour before sunset.

The clocks go back on the last Sunday of October, which moves the evening an hour earlier overnight: sunset on the Saturday before is at about a quarter to seven, and on the Monday after it is at about a quarter to six. The full year is in when to book a photoshoot in Portugal.

Which months work

October and November are the best light of the year in Lisbon, and almost nobody books them. In midsummer the sun is high enough by ten to flatten the hills, so the hour that works starts before seven. February and March are less reliable but empty, and on a clear day the low sun lasts most of the day. August is the one month to avoid outright: the heat, the crowds, and half the city closed.

Getting around on the calçada

Lisbon pavement is polished limestone, it is genuinely slippery, and it is on a slope almost everywhere worth standing. It is worse when it is dry and dusty than when it is wet. Wear something with a flat sole and some grip, and bring the good shoes in a bag for the frames that need them. What to wear for a photoshoot in Portugal has the rest.

If you have a second morning: Sintra and Cascais

Sintra is a morning trip. In July and August the palaces sell out days ahead, Pena runs timed entry, and the buses up from the village decide when you can start as much as the sunrise does. The road through the Serra towards Peninha is free, empty and at its best in mist, which is most reliable from October to April. The Sintra page has the details.

On the coast, Cascais bay faces south and is sheltered, so it still works late in the morning. Guincho, west of Cascais, is a morning booking only: from late spring the north wind moves sand across the beach by about four in the afternoon. See Cascais.

Planning the session

Tell us the date and whether you have a morning or only an evening. We send back the location, the start time for that date and where to meet. Sessions in Lisbon are couples, proposals, families and the classic Lisbon photoshoot; all of them are planned around the same clock. The Lisbon page lists every spot with its hour and permit notes, and you can book when the date is set.