Take Better Pictures with these Lighting Tips
In this age of digital cameras, you have probably thought that you can just point and shoot and out will appear a great shot.Hold on, don’t go so fast. The truth is you can have the top of the line digital camera, but if you don’t know what you are doing, you will take lousy shots.
I would love to give you some good tips to help you improve your photography skills. These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer. These tips all involve lighting and they are going to be some of the biggest keys to your success in taking your photos.
First great tip in regards to lighting.Now if the shots you will take are going to be outdoors during the day, the natural sunlight will be some of the best lighting possible. Now you are probably thinking, “that’s easy, when you are a San Diego photographer since it is always shiny there”, when in actuality really bright sunlight can cast harsh shadows.Or it will wash out the face details while the sun is overhead.
Overall, you are going to want to take most of the shots with the sun behind you. This prevents the harsh shadows that can be caused by the sun.But there will be those times and instances when you want different angles to get those shadows into the shots.
Now that we have addressed the shots during the day, what about those night shots?
The key to taking photos at night is turning off your flash.Now if it is pictch black, of course you will need it, but if there are some lighting, use it, but make sure the shutter speeds are slower to let the light in.Also, stay steady when you are taking your photograph or you will cause the picture to blur. Doing these couple of tricks can make a dramatic difference when taking night shots.
The third and final tip with using lighting to capture great photos is the golden hour.Now there is a time that photographers refer to as the “golden hour” or “magic hour”, and that is during sunrise and sunset.
It is during this time of day when you will capture great shots that capture more warmer colors. You will be able to capture that golden lighting you won’t catch any other time of day.
There you go.Probably the biggest secret in taking great photographs is taking advantage of the natural lighting. Knowing what techniques to use for different parts of the day, or just scheduling a photo shoots to capture those times of day will help you become an excellent photographer.