Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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Tips on Photography - Basic Lighting
In the world of photography we talk about one thing and one thing consistently: Lighting, lighting, LIGHTING! In order to have any kind of success creating really good photos you need to understand lighting. Since this is an ever evolving process, we'll be talking about this in nearly every post. But for today I want to just focus on lighting basics to give you a base to draw from.
If you look around you, even just there where you are sitting by your computer, take a moment and notice all the different light sources you can see. The window lets in light from the sun. The overhead light in the ceiling lights the space you are in too. You may even have a desk lamp on. Of course then there's the light from the monitor screen as well. That's four possible light sources just where you sit right now. Now think if you tried to take a picture of your child looking up at you from where you are sitting. Your camera would probably automatically use it's flash (since you are inside and none of those light sources are very bright) and now you have just added a 5th light source to the subject. This is what I call a lighting disaster! Each of the light sources is a different "temperature"; meaning they all give off a different hue of color. Causing your photo to look something like this:
Notice, in the shot on the left, the huge shadow behind my daughter and the odd tinge of yellow in her hair? She's adorable but technically this is a bad picture.Even without the flash (as in the photo on the right) the temperature of the picture is a nightmare: She's all green and yellow and some funky red. There are huge, dark circles under her eyes too. Not to mention the messy background...
But if I turn off all the lights, move her chair nearer to the windows, manually change the settings on my camera to avoid flash, and add some reflective light with a white poster board: Voa la!
Now we've got a good picture. Her eyes sparkle. Her cheeks glow. And her hair glistens in the sunlight. The whites are true and the colors natural. And really all we did was improve the lighting situation!
Sunlight is the ultimate light source so use it as much as you can. We can talk all day about alternative lighting, flash, and reflectors but just taking advantage of the light we don't pay for is often plenty! Shoot outside under the trees. Shoot in the shade from your deck. Set up next to large windows in a bright room. Take advantage of sunlight wherever you can and watch your photos pop! 'Cause that's what we're shooting for!
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Comments (10)
thanks for the tip!! i've always hated the shadows in my pictures.
That is a very good tip. I avoid flash as much as possible because I hate the effects of it. It's actually become difficult for me to use it even when I know I should!
How do you use the camera with no flash if every time you turn off the flash, it gets blurry? Should I be using a tripod? I don't have a digital SLR.. just a basic digital camera.. but it tends to take pretty decent pictures.. if the lighting is good.
Thanks!
That is a great tip!
@watchmefadeto100@xanga - Great question! I ran into blurry pictures too and had to learn to get enough light into the photo. Most point and shoot (p&s) digital cameras have a way to change your ISO. The ISO can be very confusing and I will cover that in a future post but basically the higher the ISO setting (400 to 1000 say) the more light your camera absorbs. Most p&s only go up to about 800, maybe 1000; anyway, you just want to set that as high as possible to get those indoor shots without flash and still eliminate blur. For help with this, check your owners manual to find how to change the ISO setting on your model. Hope that helps!
@LydJaGillers@xanga - Thanks!! So glad you find this info useful! That's what I'm shooting for!
Thanks so much! That's a great post.
I wonder something... Do you ever use studio lighting? I'm trying to learn more about it since what I need is parent/ baby shots for birth announcements. It's so hard to figure out what's going to work!
@SingAsIfGODIsListening@xanga - I went to a class on studio lighting and have played around with it some. The right equipment can be very expensive but I'm really enjoying just making my own with Reveal flood lights bulbs and those fixtures that clip on you can just pick up at Home Depot or whatever. Play around with it and google homemade lighting. There are quite a few photographers out there giving instructions on do-it-yourself lighting equipment.
Thank you!!!