Photography Lighting

Photography Is A Recording Of Light

By Damien Andrews

Continued...

Perfect photography lighting. You can actually see it with your eyes. It's usually before or after a storm. It's bright, but overcast and there are no clear shadows. The colors of the leaves, grass and flowers jump out at you. This is the best time to take a photograph outside.

Harsh shadows. Harsh shadows are almost always undesirable. Bright, "hard" light equals harsh shadows, unless you have lighting to compensate by shining on the shadowed areas. Harsh lighting can often be dealt with by the use of a light diffuser. A light diffuser works great for smaller subjects, but won't help much when trying to take a photograph of your son's soccer team. Try changing angles or have the team move until the lighting is best.

Harsh or hard lighting. This is most often a problem when taking photographs outdoors in a bright sun. Some areas of the photograph will be overexposed and some areas will be underexposed. These photographs also tend to lack fine detail. Use the fill flash to help compensate for this problem

Harsh backlighting. When the area behind your subject is much, much brighter than the subject itself. This happens when taking photographs of someone in the snow or on the beach – as well as at other times. Move closer to the subject and use the fill flash to help compensate for this common problem.

Inadequate lighting. A flash will sometimes fix this, but it often causes its own problems with shadowing. Try opening curtains and/or turning on lights in the room. If you have a static subject, consider a long exposure using a tripod. This is incredibly easy to do with digital photography equipment. Open the lens up and start with an exposure of 2 seconds – check the photograph and start making exposure time adjustments as needed. Use the automatic timer on your camera to take photographs without touching – and slightly moving – the camera during exposure.

Glare. There is an easy fix for this problem: use a polarizing filter. Adjust the filter as needed to reduce and eliminate glare from reflective objects such as glass and shiny metals.

When it's possible, try not to 'point and shoot' your photographs. Take a moment to look through the viewfinder or at the screen on your camera. Don't see the overall image you're about to photograph, rather, look at the specifics of the pending photograph: lighting, shadows, where the subject is in the frame, distractions that will detract from your subject. If you practice doing this, it will quickly become second nature to you – and will repeatedly show its worth in your improved photographs.

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