Outdoor Lighting and Contrast tips

Making your photos pop, whether they are wildlife or indoor studio photos, requires great light and contrast. There are five major light types for outdoor photographs. Light offers distinct illumination on the subject from within, offering a translucent glow, the front, the back, the side and at a three-quarter angle. By utilizing the light, your photograph can have additional drama and interest. For outdoor shots, contrast reduction should be utilized as the sun is lower. The contrast is naturally reduces when sunlight closer to the horizon and when the sun is higher to the sky. By utilizing these times, your photos can contain shadows as well as highlights.

Natural light should be utilized for outdoor photos. Indoors, two strobes can add dimensions and life to shots which deal with high stress and are fast moving inside darker interiors. Natural light creates this for you. Direct sunlight during the middle of each day should be avoided and shade is more attractive because shade retains subtle light with dark relationships for the subject. Flash outdoor will reduce or even eliminate those details. Shallow depth and complementary lighting are great for outdoor photographs.

In terms of outdoor lighting, color, quantity of light, quality of light, and direction are what determine how your subject will appear. Daylight as well as sunlight change each hour and are distinct based on season, location, weather, as well as latitude. By utilizing the changing daylight, shapes, colors, as well as tones can be altered for each scene. Best used near the ends and beginnings of each day, strong color can be found in mist, haze, or during storms. The lights direction will change with the movement of the sun over the sky, offered alterations in the shape of the shadows and their direction.

Direct sunlight is referred to as hard light because the shadows it produces as well as the highlights are well-defined. This type of outdoor lighting creates more intense strong colors but weaker pale colors. This natural light can be diffused by pollution, mist, or haze, producing a weaker light which creates softer shadows and duller highlights. Diffused sunlight is referred to flat. This is because it flattens form but provides well-saturated colors.

While many will tell you to maintain the sun behind you, lighting over-the-shoulder will create a flat effect and will not bring out detail or impress upon the viewer any depth. Since our eyes see three dimensions we are able to compensate for poor quality lighting. A photographer, however, only works with two dimensions and must utilize light from an angle or the side to impress upon the viewer the depth of the subject, their form, and their texture. Turning your subject, changing the viewpoint of your camera, or waiting until more light falls on a single side can create side lighting. If you are creating photos in black and white then relying on the grey tones are particularly important in order to best record your subject. In this case, side lighting is extremely important because it reveals shadows and other texture-like details.