Tips For Successful Lighting
Posted August 9th, 2008
In photography, it’s all about lighting. The most successful photographers are the ones most able to control, manipulate, and use it to capture what they see in their mind’s eye. There’s generally 2 approaches when it comes to lighting.
In both instances the photographer must understand light well to “predict”, not only what the camera will capture, but also whether the image will reproduce faithfully in print.
The 1st approach requires subtlety. This means you may or may not choose to supplement the light already in the scene. This is usually how photojournalist work.
They often meter their scene after deciding where their subject will be, determine the number of f-stops between highlight and shadow. Then they boost the shadow area if there are important details there.
The key is to preserve the “mood” and “feel” of the scene. This approach usually requires little equipment since the photojournalist works mostly on location.
The 2nd approach resembles how an artist “paints.” He paints his scene by lighting every element.
The ambient light is not a factor at all. It’s almost as if the photographer is working in a dimly lit room and he has to light everything in the scene.
By careful positioning of his lights and varying their intensity, he creates shadows and highlights selectively. How realistic or natural the scene looks depends his skill in execution and his conceptualized image.
If outdoors, and if he wants to create a picture that is natural, then his scene will have to appear to have just one dominant light source–like how our one Sun lights our natural world.
The operative word here is “appear to have one dominant light source.” He will most likely use more than one light source because of the contrast, but his shadows are carefully controlled.
Even though photography is a two-dimensional artform, good control of light creates 3-dimensions by giving pictures depth. The good use of shadow and highlights in a picture is what conveys depth.
A common misconception about “good lighting” is that there has to be a ton of it. Well, maybe not a ton, but an eye-squinting-tear-producing amount.
A scene that is so bright like at high noon tends to be problematic. Light levels with such intensity require small apertures so that invariably the photographer has to deal with too much depth-of-field.
So good light doesn’t necessarily mean an exposure of 1/2000 sec at f11 iso 100.
It all depends on what you’re photographing. There is such a thing as too much depth-of-field.
If you’re photographing something that’s moving fast, and if your aim is to “freeze” the moving object, then in that particular instance, that suits your purposes, so it is good light. You’re able to use high shutter speeds to arrest that motion.
That “high noon” light is probably only good for gunfights. There are very few instances when a photographer will choose that time of the day to schedule a shoot.
Well-lit photographs don’t usually happen by accident. If shooting in available light, you can bet the photographer planned to be at that very spot at that time, after doing some reconnaissance beforehand.
Possible places with good directional light which can give you a nice ambiance or mood are:
- Doorways and windows
- Reflected light e.g sunlight bouncing off the water in late evening or early morning
- Incandescent light in homes.
- Candlelight and campfire light
Read the illustrated version of this article on lighting.
Peter Phun is an adjunct photography instructor at Riverside City College. He is a freelance photographer, web designer and stay at home dad. He previously worked as a staff photographer for 18 years at The Press-Enterprise, Southern California’s 4th largest daily newspaper. Peter is the webmaster for the Mac user group in the Inland Empire. For more information about this Riverside based photographer, visit http://www.peterphun.com
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