Light is essential to photography. We all know this but many photographers seem to be in the dark when it comes to understanding the basics of lighting.

It isn’t that hard to understand once you’ve nailed down the properties of light.

The Four Properties of Light

• Direction
• Intensity
• Softness or Hardness
• Color Temperature

It really is that simple. It’s the ability to recognize, modify, and emulate these four qualities of light that differentiates the average photographer from the master of light.

The best exercise that you can do, as a photographer, is to be constantly aware of how light behaves in everyday life situations. Figure out how you can duplicate the effects of that light. This will allow you to create mood, feeling, and help tell your story as a photographer.

Direction of Light

Most photographers, whether they know it or not, tend to emulate what they see in nature. The dominate and most important factor in light, for most scenes, is the direction from which the light comes.

The sun, at high noon, comes from the top, and is not very flattering for portraits. The sun, at sunrise or sunset, offers side lighting that can be dramatic and flattering.

When it comes to the design aspects of your photograph you also have to consider how that direction of light plays to our natural tendencies to associate that direction with emotion. Sunny days often make us feel happy while dark gloomy overcast days make us feel…well…dark and gloomy.

Light from above is natural. The sun is above us. Light from below isn’t natural and can be used to produce images with a “scary” feeling.

This is not to say that every “good photograph” uses light from above or from slightly above and to the side. These are just basic things to learn so that you can break rules as you see fit in order to tell your story through your photographs.

Intensity of Light

This is real Einstein stuff. Intensity of light is relative. Okay, maybe not pure Einstein but whatever. In a dark scene a small flashlight can seem bright and intense but you probably wouldn’t even see it on in bright daylight.  Relative.

There are two ways that you must think about the intensity of light:

1. Is the quantity of light sufficient to set the aperture and shutter speed that is required for this particular photograph?
2. Is the intensity of light from the main light source strong enough, relative to fill light or ambient light, to produce the mood or desired effect of this particular photograph?

You can control these factors by increasing or decreasing the strength or intensity of your main light source or you can increase or decrease the light output from your fill or ambient light.

When using studio lights or strobes this can be done by manually changing the light (power) output or simply by moving the lights closer or further from your subject.

You need enough light intensity to give you the opportunity to use the speed and f-stop that is required relative to the ISO you’re using.

Our eyes see a much larger range of tones than cameras and prints can produce. They can see details in strong high-light and in strong shadows. As viewers of photographs people tend to want to see this same range. Because it can’t be reproduced, as photographers, we have to compromise and minimize that range.

This can be done by reducing the intensity of the main light and by adding “fill light” to shadows.

Again, not every good photograph has to follow this “formula”. You have to learn rules before you can break them.

Hard and Soft Light

This is often referred to as the quality of light. Learning to control this quality of light can mean the difference between a well-crafted photograph and a snapshot.

This quality of light is sometimes referred to as “specular light” (hard light) or “diffused light” (soft light) especially when in reference to the highlight reflections seen in your subject.

If you are a portrait photographer you probably already know that soft light tends to be the most flattering. In portraits, the hardness or softness of the light affects every aspect of the photograph. It affects the soft quality of the highlights and soft light produces gradual transitions from highlights to mid-tones to shadows.

These same qualities are true when photographing any subject matter.

The softness or hardness of the light can be summed up by to two basic rules:

1. The smaller the light source, the harder the light.
2. The larger the light source, the softer the light.

Be forewarned that these rules, while simple in concept, allow for a few pitfalls and should be followed by the phrase “everything else being equal”.

The smaller a light source becomes the more focused it is. Focused light cannot “wrap” around the subject in the same way a larger (more diffused) light source can.

Now the distance between subject and light source comes into play. The further away the light source, the more focused it becomes. It’s like the light got smaller and is less able to “wrap around” the subject.

This introduces a second, and complementary, set of rules.

1. The closer your light source to subject, the softer the light becomes.
2. The further your light source to subject, the harder the light becomes.

So…how does this all work together? Consider what could possibly be the best example of the hardest light you could find: A very small light source (with enough output to actually affect the photograph) and very far away. How about a spot light a hundred feet away?

The softest light would be a large soft-box right next to your subject. This is why portrait photographers use large soft-boxes. They diffuse the light (making the light source bigger), allowing it to wrap around their subject, thereby creating flattering lighting conditions for portraiture.

Color Temperature

Often times you’ll hear photographers mention photographs being too cool or too warm. This is in reference to color temperature and how it affects the overall image.

Here are a few common light sources and the colors they produce. Fluorescent lighting casts a greenish color, tungsten bulbs make things appear more orange and candle light turns colors redder still. The setting sun produces reddish hues while overcast days tend to be blue in color.

In the old days of film you had to use color balanced film or filters to balance the light. Digital cameras, however, have an automatic color temperature balance (auto white balance). The camera will look at a scene and if it reads that the color is too blue it compensates to make it color neutral by adding a red shift to the colors recorded. If it sees an orange scene (sunset) it will increase the blue content and all of the beautiful colors of the sunset don’t seem so dramatic anymore. There are many built in color temperature profiles for your camera that can aide in balancing your photograph or you can just shoot in RAW and handle that stuff afterward.

Camera strobes (almost all of them) come “daylight balanced”. This means that the strobes you may be using may not be the same color as the ambient light in the rest of your image. This becomes important when you’re using ambient light as fill, or when you’re using two or more light sources with differing color temperatures.

You can often correct a color cast using your image editing program’s channels or color balance control. Some of them have “presets” built in to fix images in one click!

Most often, photographers will attempt to neutralize color temperature manually or allowing the camera to do it, but many use this unique characteristic of light to manipulate the mood of the photograph or to further enhance the dramatic colors present in the scene before them.

Many portrait photographers like a slightly “warmer feel” to their portraits. This is done by various methods including; using warming gels over lights, using gold reflectors, manipulating the image in editing software. Conversely, photographs of green foliage can often benefit from cooler temperature enhancements.

Of course, color temperature, whether it’s natural, caught in camera, light manipulated, or digitally enhanced are all subject to the taste and discretion of the photographer and the viewer and add one more property of light to manipulate or emulate to create an overall mood to your photographs.

Observe and Experiment

There are tons of variables to consider when you think about light and how it’s going to have an affect on your photograph. Experimentation and practice is key to being able to instinctively light, or manipulate light (or your subject relative to the light), a photograph. Try big light sources, small ones, far away, and close in. Take photos at different times of day under different states of cloudiness. Shoot indoors and outdoors and with and without flash to see how the color temperatures and highlights play with one anther. Mix and match various light sources. There are countless ways to play with light.

Look at light all around you. How does it behave? How hard or soft are the shadows? Look at faces and determine the light source. How does that light source effect the shadows and contrast of the subject? All of this can be done in your “off time” as a photographer. It’s one way to become a better photographer without a camera in hand!

Photographs:

Lights by Steve G. Bisig of Steve G. Bisig Photography

Light and Fog by Massimiliano Partemi

CD Album Art – Phoenix Arizona – dee jay – DJ’s Band by ACME-Nollmeyer of ACME Photography

Very Advanced Lighting and a Beautiful Girl by Wizwow of Don Giannatti

Santorini ~ Orange Sunset ~ Greece by Ryan_Hasselbach of Hasselbach Photography

Popularity: 10% [?]

Related posts:

1. Lighting Techniques: The 3 Light Set Up
2. Love The Light
3. How To Measure Light With Your Camera
4. Easy Lighting Tips for Outdoor Photography
5. More with Less: Light and Strobes