Hello and welcome to your 7th lesson at the Icon Photography School!
In this lesson we will be exploring the subject of lighting. Lighting is referred to as the photographer’s paintbrush or the raw material of photography. Without any type of light your photographs would turn out too dark and ultimately underexposed. With too much light, your pictures would turn out overexposed. As a photographer light is equivalent to the color palette of a painter. You need to understand your photographic lighting conditions in order to take great shots based on the lighting situation that day.
Lighting, like other elements of composition help you place emphasis on subjects which are of more interest, while taking away attention from objects that hold lesser importance to the overall photograph. Light and shadows can also create mood, draw your attention to a specific area, modify shape, create a 3rd dimension or bring out texture in an object.
Shadows caused by lighting are another key element to photography as they help create the illusion of three dimension in a photograph. Without shadows your photograph would record images without form or curvature and would appear lifeless and dull.
The Color of Daylight
As morning passes through to night, the color of natural light changes. Sometimes our skies are filled with bright white light Other times there seems to be a predominance of purples or oranges.
The color of daylight has a profound effect on the atmosphere of a photograph. Being conscious of the color of light around you will allow you to manipulate the mood set by each of your photographs. Changes to the color of light are often more dramatic at the beginning and end of each day. At dusk and dawn, have your camera ready and prepared to capture the experience as this is when the most rapid changes in the colors of the sky occur.
Backlighting
Backlighting is exactly how it sounds. It’s lighting from behind the subject. Backlighting can be a photographer’s friend and in other cases it can be a photographer’s worst enemy. Backlighting usually causes the subject in the foreground to be underexposed, possibly even silhouetted, as the camera adjusts itself to be able to expose the bright background properly.
Using Backlighting to Create Silhouettes
Creating silhouettes in your photographs is not too hard. All you need to do is ensure there is a big enough variance in the tonal range of your foreground subject and your background source of light. For instance, if you are shooting a dark object such as a person against a bright sky, all you need to do is set your exposure to capture the sky properly and you’ll effectively underexpose your foreground object, in this case a person. If however, your foreground object was only darkened and not fully silhouetted then you may need to slightly overexpose your background sky to further exaggerate the silhouette and make the foreground object appear entirely black.
Side Lighting
Side lighting can also add a dramatic look to your photographs. With a side lit photograph one side of your subject’s body will be illuminated while the other side may be in total darkness. Obviously there are varying degrees to which you can exaggerate the effects caused by side lighting. You can alter the intensity of the shading by ensuring the dark side has very little lighting and the bright side has a lot of lighting. You can also alter the dramatization of the effect by positioning the light at different angles.
Next is an example of shadows caused by side lighting.
In this picture, the pillars are allowing light to shine through into the monks walking area. In nature, side lighting can be a photographer´s dream and at other times side lighting can be a photographer’s nightmare. It all depends on what the photographer is tying to capture.
Note, depending on the intensity of the light coming through, the shadows cast in the photograph can be too dark, almost creating objects in and of themselves. Other times the lighting may not be strong enough giving a washed out look to the photograph.
In the case above, side lighting has created exceptionally dark shadows in the hallway. Obviously this picture would look very different if the light was overhead. There would be no shadows cast by the pillars in this case and the monks would be walking down a darker hallway.
In the picture below notice how side lighting caused an undesirable effect by creating dark shadows behind the model’s back.
Another great benefit of side lighting is that it is great for bringing out texture in a photograph. In fact there is no better way to bring out texture than by using a good side lighting source. You’ve probably seen photographs before where you can see every single texture detail. Maybe it is the vividness of wrinkles in a person’s face, maybe it´s the fuzz on plant leaves. These things can be amplified and you can make texture a primary photographic element by ensuring you are shooting when you have a good natural or artificial side lighting source. Look at the picture below to see how side lighting can really help bring out texture.
Front lighting
Front lighting helps reveal details in a photograph, however it also flattens the image and takes away from form and texture. The type of lighting created when the sun is behind the photographer is called front lighting. This “behind the photographer” lighting was probably the first photographic advice you ever received as a photographer. This may seem to be a universal recipe for good photography. However, this is simply not the case. The case against over-the- shoulder lighting is that it creates a flattened look to your photographs, doing nothing to bring out detail or provide an impression of depth. It strips the photograph of shadows, depth and texture. The human eye sees in three dimensions and can compensate for poor lighting. A photograph is only two- dimensional; therefore, to give an impression of form, depth, and texture to the subject, you should ideally have the light come from the side or at least at an angle.
Hard Lighting vs. Soft Lighting
Hard light often creates harsh, sharp-edged shadows. With soft lighting, the light is more diffused and evenly spread out. Direct sun overhead on a bright sunny day is an example of hard lighting. When the sun is behind clouds in the sky, this creates soft lighting.
Hard and soft lighting can be created artificially as well with the use of different lights. A direct spotlight would be another example of hard lighting while gentler overhead lighting with various lamps around to help fill in shadows could be considered a more soft form of lighting.
Hard lighting occurs when you have a relatively concentrated light source. Areas behind the light source are often blocked off from the light and create hard, dark shadows. Hard light sources include the sun, bare light bulbs and flash bulbs.
Lighting is softened when the illumination is scattered. Clouds or light-toned surfaces can create soft lighting. When soft lighting is present, it creates shadow areas which are diffused and soft edged.
One form of lighting isn’t necessarily better than the other one. It all depends on what the desired effect is. Obviously, hard lighting in a normal portrait situation would not be desirable. Hard shadows cast on a human face can look distracting and unprofessional. However some abstract or nature photographs would look great with hard lighting.
Example of Soft Lighting
There is a great animation on Hard Vs Soft Light here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuRQQHty9n8
Diffusing and reflecting light
In this next section we will discuss different types of light diffusion and reflection.
Diffusion
Using a material such as tracing paper or opal plastic acts to scatter the hard light coming through it and turns hard light into softer, gentler light.
Specular reflection
When you direct light off a glossy white-toned surface the light will remain harsh and directional.
Selective absorption
Smooth gray or colored surfaces absorb some light and reflect the rest.
Reflective surface
With directional lighting you may have unwanted shadows cast on your subject. For example, if you had a basketball and you set-up a small light on the right hand side of it to cast a harsh directional light on it, the left hand side would be covered with shadows. If this is not the desired effect you’re looking for you will need to place a white reflective surface (even a small white piece of paper may do the trick) on the left hand side to reflect the light and fill in some of the shadows on the left hand side.
Using two lights to fill in the shadows
Alternatively, if you have access to two lights you can use a second lamp on the other side of the object to fill in the shadows. However, you need to be careful with this technique because if you place two directional lights at equal distance from the subject then they will cancel each other out and you’ll have shadows on both sides of the object. This looks very unnatural to have shadows on two sides of a subject. Imagine standing outside and having a shadow on either side of you. It’s just wrong.
To fix the problem, you have two options. Either use a reflective surface or diffuse the light from your second light. The second light will therefore be soft light and won’t cast the unwanted, unnatural shadows.
Using flash in the daytime
Using flash lighting in the daytime is referred to as “flash fill”. This technique is helpful when you are shooting subjects against very bright backgrounds (such as a bright sky). Often the picture’s background will have the proper exposure but the subjects in the foreground may be underexposed. If this happens you can simply use flash fill to bring out your foreground subjects.
Light can completely transform your photographs which is why you need to have an acute awareness of both artificial and natural lighting conditions. It’s not that one lighting style is better than the others (although many photographers have their preferences), it’s just that the camera settings will need to be changed depending on the lighting situation, or your subject’s position may need to be changed, or you may need to reflect light or even cancel your shot.
Here is a great video about Hard Light Vs. Diffused Light