Photograph Lighting Techniques Vital in Photography

By Matt Gibbons

In every photo shoot, it is very important to capture the image with just enough and proper lighting. Too much or too little light or a combination of both can change and ruin the quality that we want to achieve for our photos. Basically in order to understand the photography lighting technique, a photographer should understand the basic types of lighting and how they affect your camera. Since each camera is designed in various features, one must put closer consideration of how the camera's feature work and what to do to use these to get full advantage.

Backlighting is the most common technique that photographers do during photo shoot. Although this can make a beautiful photo, it can also ruin it. Too much backlight such as the sun, sky, or bright lights can actually damage the image as the camera reads the brightness behind the subject and sets its internal meter to expose properly for the extra light. This will make your subject underexpose and usually turn them into silhouette. If your camera has the capacity to fill-flash, it will be very wise to use this functionality in order to "fill" in only the needed light and chase away the shadows from your main image.

Side lighting is another photography lighting technique that can give a drastic effect on your photos but it tends to cast one side in total darkness if not properly set. Although this is a wonderful way to get a mysterious dramatic image of a portrait photo, this has to be managed properly so not to expose the other side in total brightness. Putting a white poster board or other light reflecting material that can bounce the light back onto the subject is a great way to soften the effect of side lighting.

Sometimes, during an outdoor photo shoot, lighting from any direction is just too harsh and it is important to take away some of the contrast and to soften the incoming light to achieve a more pleasing photograph. Sunlight during the midday washes away all the light colors and the contrasting shadows are too dark. To diffuse the lighting during this time of the day, put your subject in the shade of the tree or building or wait until the sun goes behind the cloud. If the subject is not moveable, make your own shade by putting an umbrella or anything that can diffuse too much light.

Another photography lighting technique is artificial lighting. It comes in all shapes and sizes. Some are from a built-in flash on your camera or expensive lights in the studio. Although we might think that it always enhances images during photo shoots, we also have to consider its weaknesses. Camera flashes may sometimes cause an awful red eye so common during snapshots. This will less likely to happen of the lens is farther away from the subject. During indoor shoots, we need to consider the lights we have as it may create a yellow cast on the image since indoor lights are different from that of the outdoors. There are digital cameras that have features to automatically provide the proper lighting and it is set for common settings such as indoors, outdoors, night mode and the like. Adjusting our digital gadgets to the proper setting will help provide picture perfect images.

Matt Gibbons owns and operates Digital camera.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_Gibbons.

Home
Site Map