Lighting

UNDERSTANDiNG Lighting

What Light means in photography:

When it comes to photography, the type of lighting that you use is one of the most important elements of any photo. Light in photography refers to how the light source, which can be natural or artificial, is positioned in relation to your subject. The position and quality of light can affect any number of things in your final photo, from clarity to tone to emotion and so much more. By paying attention to how light plays off of the angles and curves of your subject, and which parts of the subject are illuminated and which are in darkness, you can become a stronger photographer because you’ll start to learn how to harness your light source in the most effective way for any given project.

How the lighting effects your photograph:

Whether you’re doing portrait photography or still life or landscape, so much of your lighting choices will depend on the features of your subject, and how you want them to be portrayed in your photos. For example, hard light is more severe and will emphasize angles and any surface that isn’t perfectly flat, like the waves at a beach or a model with wrinkles or acne, while soft light will smooth over these features.

The different types of lighting:

There are two main kinds of light: natural and artificial. Natural light is anything that occurs without human intervention, so it can be the direct light of the sun on a bright day, the diffused light created by a cloudy or foggy day, or even the light of the moon at night. On the other side of things, artificial light can often be moved around and adjusted to fit your situation. It is easier to position artificial light in relation to your subject than with natural lighting, where you would have to move the subject and camera according to the lighting technique that you want to use. Both artificial and natural lighting can be manipulated to create any number of styles of lighting, as long as you know how to use them.

Watch these videos to help your understanding on Lighting