Photography for Beginners: Lesson 2: Lighting Part 1

I consider lighting to be as equally important as composition. You master both of these techniques and you can get the perfect image every time.

Lighting techniques can get pretty in depth. There is so much to learn and I hope that I can give you some valuable information today.

First of all, I’m going to tell you to TURN OFF YOUR FLASH this week!

This may seem counterintuitive to some but I want you to practice with natural lighting. Look around you and notice how the light falls in your surroundings. Is it harsh/too bright? Is it dark and shadowy? Pay attention to scenes that have a soft natural light falling over them. Soft light will pull out detail in a scene or with your subject and give it depth. I want you to notice how light falls over a face throughout different times of the day. Get use to seeing how light hits a scene and it will help to train your eye to see light in the same way as a professional photographer.

When I was doing photography full time I began to see everything in my field of vision framed as a photo… I would note how the light was falling and could see my subject perfectly framed to get the exact image I wanted. I look around all the time and see the way the light is hitting a subject as well as the temperature of the light. If it’s that perfect soft light, I grab my camera!

When is the best time of day to shoot?

The answer to this question may seem counterintuitive to some as well. You do not want to shoot in the middle of the day when the sun is at it’s peak. The sun creates a harsh light that can either cause your subject to squint, give them dark shadowy eyes, cast dark shadows or blown out areas. You lose detail in your image when you photograph in bright sunlight and it can cause your image to appear flat. You want soft natural light to fall over your subject. It will help to frame your subject and accentuate features bringing out details in your image.

Photo taken at noon to demonstrate the harsh light and shadows you will likely get when shooting with the sun directly overhead. There's not much you can do in post processing to fix this.

Your absolute best times of day to shoot outdoors are an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. This is called the “Golden Hour” or “Magic Hour” in photography. In these two hours you will have the softest light available to you in the day. You are getting a natural filter! The sun is low in the sky and produces a light that will flow around your subject smoothly and allows the camera to accentuate the details in your scene.

I found this neat tool to help you determine when your Golden Hour is for your location. Click on this link http://www.golden-hour.com and put in your city. It will tell you exactly when to go outside to practice with natural lighting.

Another valuable piece of advice: Take advantage of overcast days. Many naturally think this is a bad time to photograph because you can’t see the sun but an even cloud cover will also give you that natural filter that you want for your photos. An overcast day will block the suns harsh rays and give you that soft light that will flow around your subject evenly to help accentuate the features that you want to bring out in your image. You don’t have to go out and buy all of the expensive accessories to get a good quality image. In fact, I have filters and reflectors and flashes I can use to recreate the look you get when you shoot on an overcast day or in the “Golden Hour” but I prefer the simplicity of shooting with natural light if I have the choice.

Here is an example to demonstrate the difference between the Golden Hour and other times. I arrived at this scene early to get familiar with the area and to warm up. The images were taken only 15-30 minutes apart.

Just before the Golden Hour.

You can see the harsh shadows cast on the boys face as well as the dark eye sockets.

Waiting 15 minutes to hit the peak of the Golden Hour gave me these results!

I now have that soft warm glow that flows around the subject and accentuates his features.

Experiment with things other than people.

This deer was photographed in the evening hour. Notice how you have that nice soft light flowing over the subject. There are no harsh shadows nor are there areas that are blown out (too bright). This light allows the camera to pick up minute details. If you look close you can pick out individual hairs in the ears. If shot in the middle of the day these would be too blown out to pick up any detail.

Here's an example of a landscape on an overcast day.

The cloud cover acts as a filter producing that soft light that you want. Look at the detail on the ground. You can pick out individual leaves. Without the cloud cover this would be a shadowy mess.

Same with the shingles on the gazebo. You are able to pick out individual shingles.

An overcast day also offers you something of interest in the sky portion of your photo. Look at a few professional landscapes and notice the sky. Almost every single one will have clouds in it. Clouds give an image more contrast as well as more areas of interest in your photo.

Look at this simple rose photographed in the Golden Hour.

This was taken right after sunrise. The sun was so low in the sky that it produced a soft light that flowed evenly over the rose. If taken at any other time of day the pale colored petals on this flower would be blown out and you would not get the detail that you can see here. The contrasting dark background with the light colors of the petals would have left you with a too bright flower and heavy shadows in the background.

When I was doing photography professionally I never scheduled photo sessions between the hours of 11am and 4pm unless I had a nice overcast day or we were shooting indoors.

So… take your cameras out during the Golden Hour this week. If you get lucky and have an overcast day, take your camera outside. Start paying attention to the available light in your surroundings. If you keep this in mind as well as The Rule of Thirds, that I covered last week, you will be well on your way to visualizing a scene in the same way as a professional photographer!

Post your images in the comments below! If you make a post use the tag #photographyforbeginners so I can easily find your images. I look forward to seeing your work this week!

Join me next week for more on lighting! I will give you numerous tips and tricks on how to take advantage of available light. I will also cover options for when you do not have enough available light.

If you missed last weeks course or you would like a quick review click on the link below!
Photography for Beginners: Intro and Lesson 1: Rule of Thirds

All images are owned by myself unless stated otherwise