Lisbon photoshoot
Lisbon photographed before it fills up — ninety minutes, two or three miradouros on foot, starting early enough that the viewpoints are still yours.
- Reply within about two hours
- Price agreed before the session
- Free reschedule for bad weather
What’s included
- 40 retouched photographs
- Ninety minutes, two or three miradouros on foot
- Start time set by the light, which in summer means before eight
- Private gallery within 48 hours
Who it is for
Who books this, and why
Visitors with two or three days in the city
A city break has no spare afternoon. A session that starts at first light is finished before most plans for the day have begun, and hands the rest of it back.
People who want the city in the picture
Not a portrait against a blurred background that could be anywhere. The roofs, the tram lines and the river, placed deliberately behind you, so the photograph could only have been taken here.
People who dread posing in public
At seven in the morning Senhora do Monte still has the city to itself. The early start is for the light; the empty viewpoint is the side effect that makes the rest easy.
Portfolio
Lisbon photoshoot portfolio
A selection of lisbon photoshoot shots to inspire your shoot.
How it works
From the first message to your gallery
Send your dates and where you are staying
The centre is small but steep. Whether you are in Baixa, Alfama or out at Belém decides where the walk starts and how early you need to leave.
We set the start time by the light
In summer that means before eight; the rest of the year it moves with sunrise. Confirmation, a named photographer and a meeting point usually arrive the same working day.
Ninety minutes, top to bottom
Starting at Senhora do Monte, the highest viewpoint, and working down into Alfama, with Escolas Gerais timed for the first trams. Most of the time goes into photographing, not walking.
Forty photographs within 48 hours
Forty retouched photographs in a private gallery within 48 hours — enough range across two or three locations that the set does not read as one backdrop repeated.
Four details — place, date, session and how to reach you — are enough for a written quote. Nothing to pay to ask.
Before the session
How to prepare
Short, practical, and the part most people skip. None of it costs anything, and all of it shows in the photographs.
- Check the route to the meeting point the evening before — the highest viewpoint is uphill from almost everywhere, and seven in the morning is not the time to find out.
- If you have just flown in from the Americas, use it: book the morning after you land, while you are still waking at five anyway.
- If your dates allow, pick a weekday; Escolas Gerais is at its best before nine on one.
- Wear layers rather than a coat. The hilltop is cool at first light and the walk down into Alfama warms you up.
- Avoid white from head to toe; the pale limestone pavement already throws plenty of light back up.
- A buggy on polished calçada on a slope is hard work. For small children, a carrier is easier.
Book Lisbon photoshoot in your city
Available in 12 Portuguese cities and destinations. Choose yours.
About this session
Before eight, and not on the tram
- Starting from
- €190
- Duration
- 90 min
- Edited photos
- 40
- Cities
- 12
Two pieces of advice govern a Lisbon session and both of them contradict what the guidebooks say. The first is the hour: the miradouros face north and east over the roofs, they hold usable light from sunrise until about nine, and after that they go flat and fill with people. In July, a session that starts at seven finishes as the first tour groups arrive. At nine there is no photograph left at Senhora do Monte that does not have forty people in it.
The second is tram 28. The honest answer is that the 28E is a commuter line rather than an attraction, and boarding it with equipment at nine in the morning gets you a full carriage and gets in the way of people going to work. The frames worth having are of the tram passing — at Graça, Escolas Gerais or Portas do Sol — in the first hour of service, and the 12E runs a shorter, quieter loop over the same streets. Forty retouched photographs, delivered within 48 hours.
Frequently asked questions about Lisbon photoshoot
Can we do the session on tram 28?
Not on board, and the honest reason is that the 28E is a commuter line. Boarding with equipment at nine in the morning gets you a carriage full of people and gets in their way. The photographs worth having are of the tram passing — at Graça, Escolas Gerais or Portas do Sol, in the first hour of service. The 12E loop is quieter and runs the same street furniture.
We are arriving jet-lagged. Is an early start realistic?
From the Americas it is the easiest thing you will do all trip: for the first mornings your body thinks seven o’clock is the middle of the night, and you will be awake regardless. From Asia it runs the other way, and the session is better later in the stay, once mornings have stopped feeling like evenings.
What if it is raining that morning?
Light rain is workable, and it empties the viewpoints even further. Praça do Comércio is arcaded on three sides, which gives cover without leaving the centre. Heavy rain is a different conversation — tell us when booking which other mornings you are in the city, so there is somewhere for the session to go.
Will there be strangers in the background?
At the first viewpoint, rarely. By the time the walk reaches Alfama the streets have people in them, and the photographer frames around them — a lower angle, a doorway instead of a panorama, a longer lens — rather than waiting for a gap that never comes.
We are not morning people. Can we do it at sunset instead?
The session is built around the miradouros, and they are a morning location. An evening in Lisbon is a different walk altogether: the river, with Doca de Santo Amaro under the bridge in the last hour before sunset. Say so when booking and it is planned that way, rather than moving the morning route to an hour when it does not work.
Is Belém a better choice than Alfama?
Different rather than better. Belém is flat, wide and monumental, twenty minutes by tram from the centre, and the exterior of the Jerónimos works before eight, before the coaches. Alfama is steep, close and busy with detail. If you want the postcard city of roofs and trams, it is Alfama; if you want space and stone, Belém.
Lisbon photoshoot, from €190
Tell us the place and the date. You get a written quote within about two hours during the working day, and the price you are quoted is the price you pay.