Photography Lighting Tips
Great Lighting for Digital Photography
These photography lighting tips are great for getting the best lighting for digital photography. Digital photography lighting can be hard to perfect, but if you follow these photographic lighting techniques, you'll have an easier job of it.
Photography is all about light. Getting photographic lighting techniques down will help you be a better photographer.
With photography there are several ways to control light. You can do so with shutter speed, aperture settings, ISO settings and with the use of artifical lights. Understanding light and how to control it gives you full creative control over the look of your photographs. In this article, I'll talk about using lighting in your photographs.
Studio Lighting
I talked about studio lighting in my Home Photography Studio article, but I'll talk about it in more detail here.
There are two types of light you can use in a studio setting:
Hot lights are tungsten lights that stay on all the time. They're called hot lights because they get quite hot. The disadvantage to using them is that they produce a lot of heat that can make your model very uncomfortable. They use a lot of power because they stay on all the time. They can also be quite dangerous if accidently knocked over. If a hot light falls on someone it could leave a serious burn. That's why if you choose to use hot lights you should make sure all of the wires are secured with tape to avoid accidents. You might also want to secure the light stands to the floor with tape.
Because of the heat they produce most people don't use hot lights anymore. Now cool lights or strobe lights are popular. These lights only come on right when the picture is taken, like a flash. They use less power and don't heat your model up.
Here are some cheap photography lighting tips for the photographer on a budget. A cheap option for studio lighting is using floor lamps with daylight bulbs in them. You can get daylight bulbs at your local photography store. Be warned that these bulbs get quite hot.
There are other options that you can use to help with your digital photography lighting situation besides just lights. You can use reflectors, umbrellas and softboxes.
Reflectors are used to reflect or bounce light. They are good to use as fill lights or even to ad a little extra light when you don't have enough studio lights to get the effect you want. You can buy specially made photographic reflectors or if you want to save money you can use a piece of white reflective poster board or large sheet of white styrofoam.
Umbrellas and softbox diffusors are used to diffuse light. When you shine a light on a subject it is often too harsh. If you use a softbox diffusor or an umbrella, it softens the light to give it more of a natural glow. Umbrellas are less expensive than softboxes.
Photography Lighting Tips for Positioning the Lights
If you're using a 1 light setup, you can position the light about 6 feet from your subject. The light should be at a 45 degree angle from them and pointing down on them. This light is called the key light and is meant to mimic natural light or sunlight. Positioning the light like this will give you strong shadows on the side of the subject that the light isn't on. In order to minimize these shadows you can use a reflector. Postition the reflexor on the other side of your model to bounce the light from the key light on the opposite side of the models face. This won't get rid of the shadow completely but it will make it less harsh.
If you have a 2 light setup you can replace the reflector with a fill light. The fill light should be dimmer then the key light. Studio lights usually have a switch on the back that you can use to control the power of a light. If your light doesn't have that you can contol the brightness of it by putting it farther away from the subject than the key light.
Use softboxes or umbrellas to diffuse both the key light and the fill light.
If you have a 3 light setup use the third light to shine on the background. This will seperate the background from the subject and give your picture depth.
You can use another light as a backlight. Position the light behind your subject out of the view of the camera. The light is best positioned low so that it gives a kind of glow at the shoulders.
You can use another light to shine on the background. This will even out the amount of light shining on the background.
If you still have yet another light to use you can position it to the side of your subject shining directly down on their hair giving a nice glow to the hair that adds still more dimension to the picture.
Photography Lighting Tips for Natural Light
Now it's time for some photography lighting tips for natural light. Using natural light to take pictures can add an interesting element to your photos. The sunlight can be quite harsh on a sunny day. Clouds naturally diffuse sunlight, but you can't always depend on them. You may need to use a diffusor in an outdoor setting to diffuse the harsh sunlight.
You can buy a diffusor. They come in different types. Many fold up so they're easy to transport. You can also make a diffusor by cutting a frame in a heavy piece of white cardboard or sheet of styrofoam and taping white tissue paper to completely cover the hole in the frame. Alternatively, you could hang a sheet on a line or tree branch to act as your diffusor.
If you don't like the shadows cast on your subject you can use a reflector to bounce some sunlight back towards them. You can also use a fill flash.
This is one of my favorite photography lighting tips. Window light also makes for good moody light effects. Start paying attention to the way the light shines through your windows at certain times of the day. You can use the shadows from curtains to add even more nice effects. Again, you can always use a reflector or flash to lighten up the shadows.
I hope these photography lighting tips helped you out. Like I always say don't be afraid to experiment. That's how you'll be able to find what works best for you.
If you liked these photography lighting tips check out more digital photography tutorials here. You might be interested in my Portrait Photography Tips page.
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