Learn How to Use the Light

I love “chas­ing” the light! I love wan­der­ing my house and see­ing light cas­cade across the room at dif­fer­ent times of the day, the shad­ows it cre­ates, and the way that it dif­fus­es through the trees in my gar­den. My favorite time of day is as the sun is set­ting low in the sky. 

My fam­i­ly has lived all over the US and now lives in Europe. Peo­ple always ask where my favorite place to live is, and when I think back, it has always been depen­dent upon the light in that loca­tion. If I loved the light, I loved the loca­tion. I remem­ber when we were leav­ing South­ern Cal­i­for­nia, I was watch­ing the sun­set with my niece and said how much I would miss the light it cre­ates. She replied, “Aunt Dena, the sun sets every­where in the world; you just have to find it.” Lit­tle did she know how right she was. Amaz­ing light is every­where; you just have to know where to look and learn how to use the light.

My mot­to is “shoot for the light and not the loca­tion.” I say it all of the time. I tell my clients when I am pho­tograph­ing their ses­sions, and I tell my stu­dents when I am teach­ing them…I even tell my hus­band when he’s tak­ing trav­el pho­tos with his smart­phone. If you learn how to use the light cor­rect­ly, it will make your pho­tographs go from mediocre to absolute­ly amazing! 

And once you learn how to use the light it is not that hard; it just takes prac­tice. Try fol­low­ing these basic steps!

1. When you are beginning to learn how to use the light, search for and find the light to use. 

Car­ry a small notepad or use your phone. Jot down where you see good light, what time of day it was, and the emo­tion that light evoked. 

2. Pay attention to whether the light is “hard light” or “soft light.” 

• Hard light cre­ates sharp shad­ows. There is a hard con­trast to this light. It is the light pro­duced on a bright sun­ny day with almost no clouds in the sky. The small­er the light source, the stronger the light. Look below at how the light cre­ates harsh shad­ows on my son’s face. The shot below that, where he is doing home­work shows a strong con­trast in the light. 

• Soft light is more gen­tle, soft, and under­stat­ed. It is the light that is cre­at­ed on an over­cast day when the sun is dif­fused through the clouds. Soft light’s tran­si­tion is much more sub­tle and soft and tends to be much more flat­ter­ing than hard light. When learn­ing the light, soft light is by far the eas­i­est to use. It soft­ly falls over your sub­ject, almost wrap­ping them in light. Look at the image below. The light is even and wrap­ping the girls in its glow. Soft light is a per­fect light to use in fam­i­ly photography. 

3. Use the light to set the mood in your photograph. 

Pho­tog­ra­phy is about telling a sto­ry, and you can learn to use the light to help tell that sto­ry. How do you want your pho­to to feel? Dif­fer­ent types of light evoke dif­fer­ent emotions. 

• Hard light cre­ates more of an edgy look, a bit more mas­cu­line. It is a great light to use when pho­tograph­ing men or boys.
• Soft light is used to cre­ate emo­tion, nos­tal­gia, and is used to por­tray ten­der moments.
• Flat light is often for­giv­ing and used when the pho­to itself is full of char­ac­ter, and the light doesn’t need to be the star. 
• Back­light tends to lend itself to a more nos­tal­gic look. It is the light that you get dur­ing the gold­en hour. 

4. Pay attention to the direction of your light. 

Try to place your­self between the light and your sub­ject, and avoid hav­ing the sun “blind” them.  Always try to catch the catch­lights in subject’s eyes. 

5. And lastly… practice, practice, practice. 

While mas­ter­ing light can be dif­fi­cult, it is amaz­ing­ly reward­ing and so fun to play with. 

So, grab your cam­era, prac­tice a bit, and start to learn how to use the light to tell your sto­ry and see if you notice a change in your photography!

Cheers

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Learn how to use man­u­al mode and take con­trol of your cam­era so that you can cre­ate the amaz­ing images that you’ve always imag­ined with the Begin­ners Pho­to­graphy Essen­tials Program!