Tips and Techniques of Using Lighting in Photography

Without proper lighting, your entire photography project is dead. Lighting is key to making your prints stand out, and this requires a bit of planning and lighting know how to make it work.

First, decide what type of light you will need or want to use… artificial light or sunlight. If you choose to utilizing sunlight, make certain to use the Kelvin scale to determine proper temperature of light, which is basically, the color of light. An example would be, if the sunlight is ‘warm’, the light will be more of a red in color, so you will need to make appropriate adjustments for the photographs. Outdoor, or nature light, provides many more opportunities for varying light situations, but this can also be a hindrance.

In addition to the Kelvin scale for color light, you will also need to understand the sunlight’s color scale. Think of it this way…your audience will have a different feeling if the picture is soft; most often, soft pictures evoke a calming sensation. The day is divided into separate color scales. For instance, the morning brings out more blue color, while a time around noon will provide you more neutral colors. Though neutral colors are just that, they do have a tendency to take away any definition or statement you were trying to convey with your photo.

Another aspect to consider when using natural light is learning to use angles, directions of the sunlight. For example, the more narrow the angle, the more shadows will be produced, and the broader the focused light, the more soft your pictures will be because the shadows will not be as defined.

Though landscape pictures require less work of natural light, both landscape and portrait photos can use specific techniques to adjust the backgrounds. You see, when taking a portrait, you must be careful not to allow the light of the landscape to become the focal point… you will need to block out some of the bright light and bring the focus back on the subject.

Practice and the understanding of techniques makes the art of photography what it is. Knowing how to use sunlight to your advantage, while keeping the light from dominating your photo’s will be the ultimate trick. Proper lighting is everything to making delightful pictures.

For another project or as a gift idea, you could consider crafting a Personalized Photo Album.