Photo Talk - lesson 4 - Lighting, part 1

Sorry about being a slacker for the last year or so. I had a baby. That's my excuse. lol.

I've also been debating where to go with these lessons because I'm trying to keep them on a level that both SLR users and point and shoot users can put them into practice.

Anyway...I've been thinking about lighting lately and how it is one of those things that can make or break a picture. It's also something that anybody can work with, regardless of your camera.

Let's work with natural light for this lesson. I'm pretty sure everybody (except maybe Kandace up there in Barrows) has access to the sun.

So...step 1. TURN OFF YOUR FLASH.

Thank you.

Now, we're going to discuss 3 basic lighting situations and things that affect them.

Frontlighting, sidelighting and backlighting. For demonstration purposes, I got the crappiest camera in my house to do these pictures...it's Nathan's cheapo point and shoot with ZERO features. This is to prove that anybody can do this with any camera.

Frontlight


Sidelight


Backlight


We're going to do these 1 at a time. We'll start with frontlight. It's pretty straightforward. The light is in front of the subject. If you were outside on a bright day, this sort of lighting would make the subject very squinty. However, if you're inside with a window it's not so bad. North facing windows are the best light, followed by South. I put plastic over my window to diffuse or soften the light coming in.

So go find a subject. Turn off your flash and turn off all the lights in the room. Face them towards a window, sit with your back towards the same window and shoot.

Ta-da! Frontlight.



Isn't it pretty?

Now go try it! I'll post sidelighting in the next few days, followed by backlighting. If you try it, comment and leave a link to your blog or wherever you put it online so I can see it!