Photography is light – capturing it, blending it, manipulating it and marvelling at it. Light changes every minute of every day and there is no such thing as “bad” natural light. Sure, that light right at sunrise and sunset (“the golden hour”) creates long shadows and casts a beautiful glow across everything, but who’s to say that the dynamic light created by a stretched noon sun isn’t just as intriguing and worthy?
Light may not be bad, but an image can certainly capture it in a bad way. This is particularly true of portrait photography.
The Squinter
The Shadowman
The Half-Man-Half-Beast
Getting the light right means you’ll most likely get the image right as well. Next week we’ll tackle using artificial lighting, this week is all about the natural stuff.
Here are 10 tips for letting natural light into your photographs.
1. Get to know the light
You don’t need a camera to observe how light changes a scene. Start by becoming conscious of where light falls around you – note where it hits harshest, the things it highlights, its relationship with texture and the tones in the shadows it leaves. What does colour do to light? What happens on a smooth or rough surface? What creates glare? What filters light?
2. Clock the light
Find some space in your week to set a day aside to stay in the one spot the whole day. Set your camera up on a tripod, anywhere you like but it’s good to find a spot that will invite shadows. Ensure you set your camera to record the time on the bottom of each image you take then snap a picture of the exact same spot every half an hour (or even more regularly if you can remember to click the shutter!). Start as early as you can and click through until every last shadow has faded to black. Studying these images will help you determine what happens to light as the day moves along.
3. Follow the seasons
Stretch the experiment further by taking a shot of the same spot at the same time each day for a week, a month, a year. Seasonal changes in lighting are spectacular due to the variance in light at different times of day, weather patterns and, most notably, a different colour palette reflecting the light. Autumn is a beautiful time to shoot outdoors – lots of crisp, bright days and a golden colour palette combine to make it golden-hour most hours of the day.
4. Embrace the clouds
Cloud cover on any given day will change the way light is diffused. A cloudy or rainy day creates a completely different sort of light – one that is even, naturally diffused with a soft, bluish tint. In many ways a cloudy day shows colours ‘truer’ than a bright sunny day, where the suns golden glow is cast across everything. Cloudy days also create a stronger colour saturation as a harsh bright light doesn’t draw the colour away. Shooting on an overcast day means that you can worry less about shadows and more about pulling in as much light as possible. You can then fix the blueish cast that overcast day creates in post production…
You will need to pay particular attention to getting the exposure right and adjusting your white balance on a cloudy day. It’s very easy to lose your subject in a blur of grey when a heavy sky is demanding attention. In the absence of shadows, create contrast through pairing light with dark colours, interesting textures and pattern.
5. Light at my shoulder
Front lighting is a very basic natural lighting pose and one employed by point and shoot photographers everywhere. This is where the light streams over the shoulder of the photographer, directly onto the subject. It’s a great way to ensure that your subject is not in shadow, but front lighting can be a harsh sort of light – squinty subjects are often the result (see above) – and creates a flattened sort of image. It’s better to light your portraits from the side or at least from an angle (see tips on using reflector below).
6. Back lit and sun flares
If you can get the softness of the light right (see cloudy day above), back lighting your subject is a lovely way to bring contrast and moodiness to a shot. You can create a semi-silhouette effect that brings a softness to your image.
Shooting a back lit photo means that the light will shine right on the front element of your lens, causing flare. Sun flare can often be deliberate, creating an artistic, natural element to your shots. You can use sun flare to bring a relaxed, peaceful feel to portrait photography, bringing the kind of warmth most often associated with shooting in the golden hour.
7. Side by side lighting
Having your subject turn side on to the light (and using a reflector to bounce the light back towards their face) can be a very flattering portrait light source. Side lighting often creates what is called ‘split lighting’ – where half the face is in the light and half in shadow. This can result in a powerful, dramatic portrait.
Changing the angle of your side lighting will change the effect of the shadows. Experiment to your heart’s content!
8. Reflect and reap
Reflectors allow you to focus your light source on your subject. So you can position your subject away from the sun (or other light source), yet still have the light focused mainly on their face. You can get some beautiful effects by turning the reflector to cast the light downwards, to one side and even from underneath the face.
To start experimenting, you don’t need to buy expensive equipment – a car heat visor works a treat as a portable reflector or you can reflect light off a white building or t-shirt or even a metal frying pan, window pane, shiny fabric or a piece of al foil. Try anything!
9. Catch the light
‘Catchlights’ are the light the eyes in a portrait catch. Without a catchlight, portraits can appear lifeless – for a lively image, the eyes really do need to be the centre of the light. Often in flash photography, catchlights will appear as exact replicas of the light used by the photographer, down to being able to make out the brand and type of light source used. When shooting in natural light, you will need to position your subject so the sun (or at least the reflection of the sun) shines back in their eyes. They don’t need to be looking at the sun for this to happen – move them around, use your reflectors, and you’ll soon see when you’ve creatively caught the light.
10. Patience catches the worm
Or something like that… when shooting in natural light it’s worth remembering that you will need to be patient if you want to get the shot. Click away and try lots of different angles and positions. The beauty of natural lighting is that it is always changing. If your shot isn’t working, don’t give up. You can always wait a little while and the light will change to something altogether different.
Bonus tip: Fake it until you make it. Using post-production software like Adobe Lightroom, you can apply filters that mimic the type of light you’re after. Have a play with online filters too.
What is your favourite time of day to take photographs?
Lucy @ Bake Play Smile says
Fantastic tips – thank you so much. I only bought my new camera earlier this year and I am still very much learning – and more than happy for as many tips as I can get! xx
Maxabella says
Thanks Lucy. I’m learning right with you. It’s a biiiig thing to learn, but step by step and we’ll get there. I just want to take pictures that I’m proud of one day. x
Holly says
Wonderful tips! I must look into getting a reflector, I think it would be a great asset. Love the new look of the blog xxx
Maxabella says
You can just use a sheet of silver or gold cardboard until you want to invest in the ‘real thing’, Holly. White card works pretty well too!! x