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Photography Lighting Tips
Submitted By: david in Arts Tips category
 Photography lighting is an important aspect in photography. The lighting you use can make or break your photograph. Lighting, helps determine the mood of the photograph, whether its playful, dramatic, sad, serious etc. Therefore, there needs to be a proper understanding of the usage of light and darkness in order to be able to take great photographs. There are several photography lighting tips that will help improve every aspect of your photos. Some of these photography lighting tips are listed below.
Before you get started, it’s crucial to understand the sources of light that is required to shoot a great photo:
Key Light – This is the main light, which falls on the subject from behind the camera. This light should be the brightest.
Back Light – Back light on the subject from behind. This light basically helps in distinguishing the subject from the background. This light should be dimmer than the key light.
Fill Light – Fill light falls on the subject from different angles. It is used for brightening certain aspects of the subject that you would like to highlight.
Once you understand these basic concepts, you can start setting up for shooting a photo. Below are some photography lighting tips to help you get better in taking photographs.
Triangulate the light sources. You must allow light to fall on your subject from three basic directions that we mentioned above. Emphasis should be given to all three – key light, back light and fill light, equally.
Use light effectively and efficiently. If shooting outdoors, use the sun to your advantage by making your subject shine bright. On cloudy days, the light is shadow free and diffused. This is great for shooting, because light falls evenly on the subject no matter which direction he/she/it faces. While shooting indoors or at night, you will need to make use of artificial light.
Give depth to your photograph, by providing contrast. If you flood the entire frame with light then the picture will seem flat. The idea is to highlight the subject and minimize shadows and at the same time give contrast as well.
Use reflectors. Reflectors are very useful to give your photograph a dramatic effect. You can make your own reflector or purchase a readymade one. Just make sure whatever you use should be able to reflect light back to the subject.
Use flash and fill-in-flash appropriately. When there isn’t sufficient light in the surroundings, make use of a flash. Many a times, photographers mistake the use of flash and use it to compensate for the darkness around. Flash shouldn’t be used as the only source of light, as this will result in a burst of light on the subject making it look washed out. In some scenarios, there may be enough light but is in the wrong place in relation with the subject. In such cases using the fill flash will draw out the subject features.
These are a few photography lighting tips to keep in mind the next time plan to shoot photographs.
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