Easy To Do Photography Lighting Tips

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Easy To Do Photography Lighting Tips

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

In this day and age of digital cameras, you’ve probably heard or thought that all you have to do is push the button and great pictures magically appear. Not so fast. The truth is you can have the top of the line digital camera, but if you don’t know what you are doing, you will take lousy shots.

Well, I would like to share with you some great tips on improving your digital photography skills. These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer.These tips are about using lighting and they will be some of the best advice and keys to your success in taking great photos.

First tip you will use in regards to lighting.Now if the shots you are taking are outdoors during the day, some of the best lighting possible will be the natural sunlight. Now you are probably thinking, “that’s easy, when you are a San Diego photographer since it is always shiny there”, when in actuality really bright sunlight can cast harsh shadows.Or it will wash out the face details while the sun is overhead.

Overall, most of the shots you are going to want to take with the sun behind you.This stops any harsh shadows in your photo caused by the sun.But there will be those times and instances when you want different angles to get those shadows into the shots.

Now that we have tackled the day shots, what if you are taking shots at night?

The key technique for night photos is actually turning off your flash.Of course if it is absolutely dark with no light you wil need it, but for times when there is some lighting, use the lighting around you, but make sure the shutter speeds are slow enough to let light in.Also, stay steady when you are taking your photograph or you will cause the picture to blur. Doing these couple of tricks can make a dramatic difference when taking night shots.

The final piece of advice to use for lighting is using the golden hour to capture great shots.Now there is a time that photographers refer to as the “golden hour” or “magic hour”, and that is during sunrise and sunset.

It is during this time of day when you will capture great shots that capture more warmer colors.You’re going to be able to capture the golden lighting you won’t find during any other part of the day.

There you go. Probably the biggest key in taking greatshots is to make sure you take advantage of the natural lighting. Knowing what techniques to use for different parts of the day, or just scheduling a photo shoots to capture those times of day will help you become an excellent photographer.

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