Friday, April 13, 2012

Effective Lighting For Natural Photography Subjects

By Harold Spencer


In nature photography, there are few things more significant in the outcome of pictures taken than good lighting. It's not as easy as taking studio pictures, where you can easily customize the lighting and shade settings - you need to find the right lighting yourself when taking nature shots. That's not all - you need to consider your subject and how it may behave, and not just other elements such as the lighting.

Of course for the seasoned photographer, natural light is no longer a hindrance. With the help of natural light, many a photographer can make a great-looking picture from an otherwise dull one. These photographers make great pictures with great effects, including but not limited to use of shadows. This would apply usually to landscape settings, or any other setting capturing flowers or other natural subjects.

Good lighting can come in a number of ways. You can get good sunlight, of course, in the daytime, while in the night time, you can get moonlight. The next significant type of light is natural light, which is a bit harder to find than the sun or the moon's lighting. You can use any one of these types of lighting for your photography. It's all about finding the right angle when taking the picture so that you can get the desired effect when shooting your subject.

You can find the desired angle by judging the shadows that correspond with the light cast upon the subject. For instance, if you want a more dramatic effect, some photographers will use shadows as their main light instead of the natural light.

Here are the four directions you would need to learn if you wish to use outside lighting to your advantage. You may get rough-looking shadows and high contrast if you use the first direction, which is overhead. This is achieved when the light is directly above the subject like when it is noontime. Frontal lights, on the other hand, could cause the result to go a bit flat.

This is usually seen with shots that use flash in the camera. If you take pictures in this direction, chances are you'll be lacking for depth and dimension. You may need another fill or place a reflector in the back to get optimum color when shooting with light at the back. Often, with a light at the back, the shadows may ruin the photo.

Shooting with the light at the side is perhaps the most recommended when it comes to the direction as this will bring out the texture and the shape of the subject that one is using. If you use this direction, you can distinguish between the parts of your picture that are highlighted or aren't highlighted.




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