Badlands, South Dakota
Quality lighting is essential for any good photograph. Studio photographers have full control over lighting, but the rest of us have to deal with the ambient light we have and whatever gear we can carry with us. There are a few steps you can use to determine the quality of the lighting in your photos and manipulate things as necessary to get the best results.
Instructions
1. Understand that light quality is influenced by the size of your light source relative to the size of the subject. Small sources, camera-mounted flashes or the sun overhead, can produce harsh and unsightly shadows. Photographs generally benefit from diffused light that comes from a source large relative to the subject. If you are not using a flash, pay attention to your light source. If it is large and soft, like the inside of a church, you are good to go. If it is small and harsh, think about using the light in dramatic ways or manipulating it. Remember, harsh light is not always bad. Most photographers consider the lighting in the hours just after dawn and before dusk perfect because they provide dramatic shadows that add character to nature shots.
2. Look through your viewfinder or on your LCD. Note the lightest and darkest spots on the frame. A properly exposed photograph will lose as little detail as possible in these areas. Snap a photo using your camera’s default exposure settings. When you review the photograph, the brightest areas of the photo, or “highlights,” should not appear blazingly white. If they do, you have overexposed the picture. The same goes for the darkest areas of the photo, the “shadows.” If they are black as ink, you have underexposed the photo. Unless the results provide some artistic effect you like, you should retake the photo.
3. Nearly all digital cameras have an “exposure compensation mode.” It is usually indicated by a small square with a plus and minus sign in it. This allows you to manually adjust your exposure value, or “EV.” Most cameras allow you to adjust EV in half step increments. An exposure adjustment in this range is plenty for most situations, but many cameras allow you to adjust exposure up to two whole steps. If you have taken an underexposed sample photo, simply increase your EV by a half step and retake the picture. If you have overexposed the photo, do the opposite. Repeat this as necessary until you get the results you want. Your camera may support auto-bracketing. This feature will automatically take a series of photos, each at different exposures. If your camera supports it, it can make getting the right exposure much easier.
4. You can use your in camera flash to add lighting in tough situations. Remember though, this light emanates from a small source an can be harsh so you may want to use a diffuser. These simple plastic attachments for your flash scatter and soften light. You can even make you own using semi-opaque plastic or paper. With a diffuser, you will see great flash photography results, even with a small point and shoot camera.
5. If your camera supports shooting in RAW, use it whenever possible. RAW files contain much more data than JPEGs and allow you to manipulate exposure and lighting with photo editing software.
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