Why sweet light is the best for photographs
First let me explain what "sweet light" is. Basically it is the light that you get for the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. It is the time of day where you do not get harsh shadows and the light is even in all directions. You may even get some amazing colors in the sky to make your photos more unbelievable. It is the dream lighting situation for any photographer and it happens twice a day and very few photographers take advantage of it.
If you want to give this a try schedule your next shoot for sunrise or an hour before sunset and see what you get. I will tell you that you are going to shoot at 800 ISO plus or minus but your lighting will be even, nobody will be squinting and the colors will be vibrant in every direction. It is enough to make you stop shooting outside at any other time of day and that is why we call it "Sweet Light".
If you have ever had a shoot where you thought you could do no wrong, this is how you can experience that feeling over and over again. Lighting is the toughest part of photography and the better you are the more you separate yourself from ametures and prosumers who have the fancy cameras that can almost do what you do with their auto mode. Shooting manual and durring sweet light hours is a sure way to put yourself a full level above program mode with a TTL flash.