Lighting - The Secret to Shooting Great Photos For Beginners
Anybody can shoot great, professional looking photo’s with a good understanding of lighting. It does not take special talent nor a fancy high-end camera to take striking and unforgettable images.
Majority of striking photos depend on manipulating the lighting on your subjects. Because photos are a two dimensional medium, people tend to notice pictures that have a three dimensional feel to them. This means you use the right contrast between dark and light, and create a shading on your subject to make them stand out.
Tips for Outdoor Lighting
1) Instead of shooting photos where the sun is hitting everything at full blast (this is usually during anytime from 10am - 3pm on a clear day), try to shoot during the day where the sun (or light source) is at an angle that would offer a more dynamic lighting environment. If you shoot during noon on a clear day, you will get what is called “flat” lighting where everything looks ugly and dull.
2) To make your subjects look most flattering, stand them in an area where sunlight is shaded, diffused, or filtered through by a window or any thing similar. This will help avoid harsh, over-exposed lighting which results in the picture being too bright and “blown-out”, a look that often dominants in amateur photographs.
3) Easiest days to shoot photos are on cloudy or even foggy days where the light is filtered through and soft, creating a nice even light without being too harsh.
4) Aim for “Golden Hour” sunlight. This occurs right at dawn or sunset hour. The sunlight during this time is soft, angled to provide 3 dimensional lighting, and has a special golden color that makes photos look great.
Tips for Indoor/Artificial Lighting
Professional photographers rarely place their light source directly facing the front of their subjects. They usually use what is called a 3 point lighting set-up. Two lights are shining at the subject from the side (one “main” light shining at 2/3 from the side of the subject’s face, the second “fill” light is a softer light that fills in any harsh shadow on the last 1/3 of the subject’s face). One light from the back to give the subject backlighting to separate them from the background.
You manipulate lighting set up mostly either:
1) Increase the distance from the light source and your subject to make the light softer (decrease distance if you want your light to be brighter)
2) Placing opaque filter (a sheet of wax paper or something similar) in front of the light source. This softens and diffuses any harsh light.
Most lighting techniques can be learned simply through observation. Take your time and move lights around or move your subject around until you get the effect you want.
Anybody can take great photographs if they spend some time before working out the lighting. It is often times the main element that differentiates an interesting photograph and an amateur picture.
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