Often, the difference between a professional photograph and an amateur one is in the lighting. Your choice of lighting type and placement can create drama, create beauty, and bring out the features of your subject, but only if you understand how to choose and arrange lights in an effective manner. The following ten tips can help beginners and professionals alike create lighting that accentuates their subject and creates the intended emotion in the viewer.
1. Choose type of lightbulb carefully.
Professional photography lights are definitely nice, but normal lighting found around your home can also create a professional effect. Fluorescent lights and ones with tints, especially yellow tints, tend to create harsh and unpleasant features and require hours in color correction. Halogen lights or standard desk lights can be ideal, on the other hand, because they bathe the subject in natural, non-glaring light. One major advantage to using small lights from around your home is that they are cheaper and easier to move.
2. Light at an angle.
Working at an angle keeps the light from shining directly into your subject’s eyes, which can create both squinting and red-eye. If you are lighting from several angles, it will reduce heavy shadows while also creating subtle, unnoticeable shadowing that brings out the subject’s features. Lighting from angles creates a soft, well-balanced effect that is smooth and portrait-like.
3. Create a neutral backdrop.
Backdrops are essential to the lighting of your photograph. Many people believe falsely that black is a good backdrop color, but unfortunately it tends to be too dark and also to show a lot of lint and imperfection in the material itself. White, on the other hand, interferes with the shot itself. It can reflect too much light and create a washed-out photograph. If your camera has an auto-exposure detector, a white backdrop will give a false reading and make it almost impossible to get an attractive photograph. Grays, tans, and other neutral colors, on the other hand, create an excellent backdrop and tend to make the subject “pop”. For a more dramatic effect, you can choose a color that contrasts highly with the subject itself.
4. Clear clutter.
Clutter in the background of a photo draws the eye away from the subject. One way of reducing the visibility of clutter in situations where you can’t simply remove it is to cover it with neutral drapes or even trays. It is easy to blur these later with your favorite photo editing software and create a smooth background; it is certainly easier than eliminating the clutter altogether or reducing its effect on the photograph.
5. Triangulate your lights.
If you want an indoor, professional portrait quality photo, using three light sources is ideal. There should be one light source on either side of the camera, each pointing in at the angle mentioned above. A third light should be positioned behind the subject, hidden and angled to prevent glare. This creates a sense of smooth, even light that we are used to seeing in portrait-type photographs. It is best to have the backlighting coming either from above the subject or below it, to reduce the chances of it blurring the subject’s features. Experiment with having the backlight shine on the subject or onto the backdrop; both create distinctive and often attractive effects.
6. Choose amount of shadowing carefully.
For photographing people, shadows create a dramatic effect and may add years or even decades to the perceived age of the subject. For this reason, most photographers prefer to photograph their human subjects in either diffused indoor light or soft outdoor light. You can create dramatic effects in a portrait by lighting only half of the subject’s face, plunging the rest into shadows. However, even this is best done with softer light. If you are filming nature shots, such as a cliff, shadows can create a sense of depth and danger that can enhance the emotional quality of the photograph immensely. Direct, bright daytime light is perfect for this.
7. Diffuse light to prevent glare or shadows.
You don’t need a professional diffuser to accomplish this; it can be as simple as placing a piece of white film or veil over your lights and even your flash. You can also diffuse the light hitting your subject by placing reflective surfaces around them and bouncing your light off the surfaces and onto the subject. This can create a very soft, dreamy effect that is very attractive in portraits. Because white plastic, paper, and cloth may catch on fire if held in close contact to hot lights for an extended period of time, you may want to consider hanging the diffusing material from the ceiling so that it hangs in front of the lights without actually making contact.
8. Think carefully about the time of day when shooting in natural light.
Natural sunlight during midday tends to create harsh shadows and even ‘raccoon eyes’. However, many photographers have great luck taking pictures during the ‘golden hour’, one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. At these times, the light is coming straight at the subject from the horizon and tends to be naturally diffused by particles in the air. Sunset shots are particularly beautiful and provide a natural scenic backdrop for the photograph.
9. Never shoot into light.
Shotting into light creates unpleasant glare. Even if this can be overcome, you will never get more than a silhouette of your subject. For the highest level of detail, shoot outdoor photos with the sun at your back.
10. Practice makes perfect.
The best way to get a feeling for what light placement creates the effects that you desire is to practice taking photos with different light arrangements and different effects. Try taking the same picture repeatedly with the lights in different strengths and positions. Add different variables, such as flash, diffusers, and backlighting. Just remember to write down which photos are using each configuration; there is nothing more frustrating than finding the ‘perfect’ lighting set-up only to realize that you can’t remember which shot that was.
