Photography Lighting Tips: Sources, Techniques, and Equipment |

Photography Lighting Tips: Sources, Techniques, and Equipment

| By Roy Rasmussen | Category: Photography

Photography lighting technique is one of the biggest qualities that separates professional photographs from amateur ones. Fortunately, you don’t need to be an expert for your photography to benefit tremendously from applying the basic principles that professionals use.

Understanding just a little about how different types of light and light sources are used in photography will enable you to set up much better shots, even without extra equipment. Adding some basic equipment will make your pictures even better. The good news is that there is effective lighting equipment you can afford on a shoestring budget. And of course there’s also plenty of equipment available for those with professional aspirations.

Here are some lighting photography tips to help you understand the basic types and sources of lighting and apply these to your lighting techniques. You’ll also learn about different types of lighting equipment and what kind of equipment you can afford on a budget. Let there be light!

Types of Light

In photography, there are several types of light it is important to distinguish.

Light can be direct, extending from its source directly to an object, or reflected, bouncing off some intermediary object first. Light that is reflected as it passes through some medium is called diffuse light.

A device designed to diffuse light is called a diffuser. Diffusers are often used in photography to reduce glare.

Light can similarly be hard, casting shadows with sharp edges, or soft, wrapping around the edges of objects to cast more gradual shadows. Whether light is hard or soft depends on the size, distance, and angle of the light source, with direct light tending to be hard and reflected, and diffuse light tending to be softer.

Photographers usually prefer soft light in order to reduce stark shadows, especially in portrait photography. However in some cases, hard light is used for specific purposes, such as emphasizing textures of objects or contours of landscapes.

Light Sources

The hardness or softness of light often depends on its source. Light sources can be categorized in a couple different ways.

One way to categorize light sources is to distinguish natural light generated by the Sun from artificial light generated by man-made electrical appliances.

A similar distinction can be drawn between available lighting, which is already present without input from any flash devices, and studio lighting, which is created by deliberately controlling lighting conditions.

Available light includes sunlight and normal room light and streetlight. Studio light is created by use of devices and techniques such as lamps, reflectors, diffusers, filters, and chroma key compositing (greenscreening and bluescreening).

Available light produces the most natural-looking pictures. However, studio light makes it easier to generate soft light and results in the best quality for portraits, product pictures, movies, and other professional shoots.

Lighting Techniques

How you select and arrange your lighting sources will be dictated by the lighting techniques you intend to use. One of the most fundamental techniques is adjusting the angles between the following light sources:

The key light is the main direct light source illuminating the subject. It has the biggest impact on the shoot’s overall lighting intensity, color, and angle.
A fill light is a secondary direct light source, dimmer than the key light and placed at an angle to it, off to the side and often at a lower height. It is used to illuminate shaded areas and soften shadows.
A back light is a direct light source shone on the subject from behind, usually from an angle. It spills over rounded surfaces on the subject such as heads and shoulders, emphasizing contours and separating the subject from the background.
A background light is a reflected light bounced off the background behind the subject.

Outdoor Applications

When shooting outdoors, the Sun usually serves as your key light. To help it serve this purpose, position it behind you and your camera when possible.

You can also use the Sun as a back light, a fill light, or a background light. A common use of the Sun as a back light is shooting the rising or setting Sun behind a subject.

If you’re aiming for soft light, shoot when the Sun is lower in the sky. The Sun’s height will also affect the color of your shoot, with dawn and dusk hours producing warm yellow tones and other effects.

If the Sun is making the background of your subject very bright, this runs the risk of your camera automatically adjusting to your background lighting instead of your subject. To offset this, you can to pick up on the lighting you want by using your camera’s fill flash mode or manually adjusting your camera aperture settings. If this results in overexposure, an alternate technique is to use reflectors to balance shadows with reflected light. Some cameras have an exposure compensation feature to aid with this.

Clouds can serve the role of diffusers. Denser clouds tend to render soft light, though strong overcasts can obscure shadow details and create a flat look.

If you’re shooting at night, you can adjust to low lighting conditions by using your preview screen and experimenting with different shutter speeds. Slow shutter speeds will make the camera more sensitive to any shaking of your hand, so compensate by using a tripod and a self-timer or cable release trigger.

Indoor Flash Applications

When shooting indoors, if you’re using a built-in flash, treat it as your key light. You can also use your camera’s fill flash setting to reduce shadows, and you can bounce flash light off surfaces like a background light.

In some situations, you may opt to add an additional flash or flashes by using a slave eye detector to synch your auxiliary flash with your main, on-camera flash. If you do this, it’s best to use a flash bracket to reduce shadows and avoid red eye, and to use diffusers to prevent your auxiliary flash from overwhelming your on-camera flash.

Indoor Studio Applications

If you’re using additional studio light sources other than a flash, two different arrangements are commonly used: three-point lighting and four-point lighting.

In three-point lighting, the subject is typically placed at the center of a triangle, with one point formed by the key light and the other two by the fill light and back light, which are placed opposite each other at 90 degrees to the key light. Other three-point configurations can also be used. Three-point configurations illuminate the subject while allowing shadows to be controlled.

Four-point lighting starts from a three-point configuration and adds a background light, typically placed at the same angle as the fill light but closer to the background of the subject. This illuminates the background, which can reduce shadows in the background, create a sense of depth, or draw attention to the background.

Equipment

Many of these techniques are easiest to achieve with studio lighting equipment. If you’re interested in using studio equipment, you can either rent a studio or invest in your own lighting equipment.

Lighting equipment costs range from $10 on the low end to hundreds and thousands of dollars for professional cinematic and theatrical lights. If you don’t have a Hollywood budget to play with, here is some basic equipment you can get for a reasonable price that will serve most amateur photography needs.

Scoop lights or scoops (technically called ellipsoidal reflector floodlights or ERFs) are lamps with a housing shaped like a metal dome and no lens. They usually need to be attached to a stand by a means such as a clip. They cast floodlight with a diffuse, soft-edged beam, and are useful for creating even washes of light and for blending colors. Altman is a major manufacturer. Prices can run up over $200 for larger models, but you can get the housing minus the bulb at a hardware store for about $10, and add a bulb of your choice. You can also find a used scoop on eBay for about the same price.

Work lights are high intensity floodlights. They are good for lighting large areas with strong light. They come in several varieties, including single lights mounted on a portable floor stand and twin lights mounted on a tripod. Manufacturers include Bayco, Craftsman, and Designer’s Edge. Single light portable models start under $10. Twin head tripod models run from about $20 to $25 and up.

Umbella light kits attach a tripod-mounted lamp to a translucent umbrella. This allows light to be shone through the umbrella or bounced off it for softer lighting, useful for portrait photography. Smith-Victor Corporation is a major supplier. Prices for reliable quality kits run $100 and up. You can find lower prices online, as low as under $25, but quality varies widely, so shop with discretion.

Fresnel lanterns have an adjustable knob to switch between floodlight and spotlight modes, coupled with a concentric rippled lens that casts a soft, even beam. Many models feature housing attachments called barn doors that allow adjustment of the light beam’s shape and color. The ARRI Group is a leading manufacturer. Prices start around $300 for single units.

Soft boxes enclose a fluorescent light or other light in a housing with reflective sides and a diffusing cover. Fluorescent models are excellent for casting soft light without excessive power, heat, or glare. The cover is removable on some models so that the soft box can be used as a floodlight or work in tandem with an umbrella reflector. Manufacturers include Smith-Victor, Photoflex, Westcott, ePhoto, and Cool Lights. Prices start around $125 to $200. If you want to go even lower-end, see the references at the end of the article for a link on how to build your own homemade soft box by equipping your camera with stiff picture mounting card covered with translucent material.

LED video lights are broad LED lights housed behind a diffuse cover with barn doors. Some units can be mounted on cameras or camcorders. They are energy-efficient, easy to recharge, low heat producers, and damage-resistant. Suppliers include CowboyStudio. Prices start under $50 for camera- and camcorder-mounted units. Higher-end models can run over $1,000.

When using any studio lighting equipment, be conscious of power consumption and safety issues. To avoid running too much power off any one circuit in your home, use extension cords to access other circuits. To avoid tripping and knocking lights over, leave excess slack curled near walls and light bases, with the cording between lying flat and protected by tape and rugs. Remember that studio lights get very hot, and avoid burning yourself.