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- Natural light can vary drastically over the course of a few hours. The classic example is between mid-afternoon light, golden hour, sunset, and blue hour. All of them can lend drastically different looks to your subject. Some lighting conditions are even more fleeting: imagine those moments when the sun breaks through the storm clouds.
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What is natural light in photography?
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What are some examples of natural light?
How do you use natural light in a photo?
How to choose a good camera for natural light photos?
What characteristics should you consider when using natural light?
Oct 9, 2022 · Natural light photography is the process of taking photographs using only the sun (or moon) as your primary source of light.
Sep 2, 2022 · Learn About Natural Light in Photography and 4 Tips for Using Natural Light in Your Photography. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Sep 2, 2022 • 3 min read. Many factors contribute to great photography, but none is more important than light. The light source of your photographs will affect their character and mood.
- Taya Ivanova
- Use Moonlight to Take Ethereal Photos. Moonlight may not be the most popular kind of light because it’s considered weak. With the right camera settings, you can take ethereal photos of silhouettes and landscapes.
- Use Reflected Light to Create Dynamic Compositions. Reflected light is exactly what it sounds like: light that’s reflected off a surface. It can be any reflective surface, including a piece of glass, sunglasses, or even a prism.
- Use Twilight Photography Techniques to Take Atmospheric Photographs. The blue hour occurs when the sun is below the horizon. This creates a soft blue light that is often found in landscape photography.
- Shoot Before Sunset or After Sunrise to Work with Golden Light. Golden hour happens right before the sun sets and shortly after it rises. The light during this time is soft and warm.
- What Is Natural Light in Photography?
- Why Use Natural Light?
- How to Modify Natural Light
- What Is Artificial Light in Photography?
- Why Use Artificial Light?
- How to Modify Artificial Light
- Conclusion
The most important natural light source in photography – by far – is the sun. Sunlight can be harsh, soft, colorful, diffused, or any of dozens of combinations. It requires some experience to understand how sunlight shapes your images, but doing so can unlock a huge range of photographic opportunities. Natural light can come from other sources, lik...
One of natural light’s biggest benefits is the very fact that it’s natural, and usually just looks right to your viewer’s eye. While cameras don’t perfectly replicate what we see, in a variety of ways, the shadows, directionality, and tone created by natural light typically feel familiar and normal to those who view your photos. While harsh natural...
Shade
The most basic way to “modify” the natural light is to move your subject into the shade. Whether this is shade from a tree or building – or even some artificial shade from an umbrella / diffuser – moving into the shade can transform harsh, angular light into softer, more flattering light. By going into the shade, you’re eliminating the impact of direct light hitting your subject. This results in softer shadows, and depending on how the light is filling the shaded area, it can create more fill...
Clouds
A cloudy, overcast day can essentially turn the entire sky into a softbox. While these gray days are few and far between in the desert I live in, clouds of any kind can create interesting lighting conditions. Completely overcast days can lead to the softest light, while scattered clouds can create interesting backdrops in your landscape photos. While you can’t create clouds with the flip of a switch, watching for interesting weather can help you plan shoots for certain subjects. In places wit...
Time of Day
Natural light can vary drastically over the course of a few hours. The classic example is between mid-afternoon light, golden hour, sunset, and blue hour. All of them can lend drastically different looks to your subject. Some lighting conditions are even more fleeting: imagine those moments when the sun breaks through the storm clouds. The broad range of possible conditions makes it tough to offer specific advice on choosing a time of day. My only advice is to think ahead of time about what m...
Artificial light in photography can cover a wide range of light sources: on-camera flash, off-camera strobes, constant lights like LEDs, or even sources in your environment like lamps and neon signs. Typically, when photographers mention artificial light, they are thinking about flashes or continuous lights – basically, lights that you have control...
The biggest benefit of artificial light in photography is control. For many genres of photography, being able to precisely dial in the amount, direction, and quality of light is very important. Not to mention the sheer creative flexibility that comes from controlling the color, direction, and softness of the light for yourself. Repeatability and co...
Start with the Light Source
There are a wide range of artificial light sources that can work for photography, and they each come with their own benefits and drawbacks: 1. Small flashes are affordable and easy to work with, while still providing plenty of light for smaller subjects and small groups of people. They let you freeze fast-moving subjects, but they usually lack some advanced features. 2. Larger flashes provide more power and faster recycling times, and they’re capable of filling larger modifiers like softboxes...
Modifiers
Consider budgeting for a number of modifiers when choosing your lighting kit. Every source of artificial light becomes far more useful when you have a range of modifiers to choose from. Adding softboxesand stripboxes can help you increase the apparent size of your source, while adding a snoot or grid can help you tighten up the spill. Gels let you turn a white light into a rainbow of colors, or match your strobe to other light sources in the frame, like sunset. There’s a massive range of ligh...
Distance
Another important factor in modifying artificial light is actually free: changing the distance between the subject and light. Bringing the light closer can both soften the light (by increasing the apparent size) and cast more light on your subject. For more information on diffusers and lighting concepts, check out Nicholas’s thorough guide to diffusers here.
I think that understanding light is the most important things as a photographer. Even if you’re only a landscape photographer who will never need artificial light, a lot of the concepts at play will matter as you visualize how the sun will sculpt the landscape throughout the day. As for artificial light, if you’ve been putting off how to use your f...
- Diffuse Natural Light. If you find yourself in unfavourable photography lighting conditions, always try to diffuse the light by whatever means possible.
- Use the Weather to Your Advantage. A common mistake beginners make is thinking that they can’t go out shooting when it’s raining or overcast. This is a myth.
- Use a Polarising Filter. Sometimes you have to shoot in the middle of the day. While the lighting is hard to work with during this time of day, it would be a shame not to use the time to get some decent photos.
- Switch Off the Lights. If you are shooting indoors, switch off any lights. Artificial lights don’t mix well with natural lighting. This can have a negative effect on the white balance and create unnatural skin tones.
Apr 3, 2023 · Learn all about natural light in photography, including the different types of light sources, the benefits of using natural light, how it affects your photos, and the best ways to use natural light to create stunning images.
Oct 11, 2021 · A good natural light photography tutorial should give you all the information about when, how and why to take your photos. Through this article, we’ll show you how to use natural light indoors and outdoors, and what effects you’ll get when shooting at different times of day too.
