Photography Lighting:
understanding the true subject of
every photograph

Understanding photography lighting is as important to photography as mastering the principles of camera and lens. It is equally important as understanding photographic film or the intricacies of the digital image. If you get right down to it, light is the true subject of every photograph.

Snap-shooters see a subject they like, point the camera, and shoot. Nothing wrong with that: millions of nice photographs get made that way.

Photographers, on the other hand, are on a never-ending search for interesting light. Our subjects are important, of course. If we grasp the fact that without light there is no photograph, we set ourselves up for an important transformation as image-makers, made all the easier as we master our camera and it's controls.

Great light is magical! I hope to pass on my passion for the subject, as well as some practical photographic lighting techniques, over to you!

Here are the topics we'll cover in this Photography Lighting section:

• Light speaks to us in unique and beautiful ways. Understanding the Language of Light is to interpret what qualities of light are in front of us, and how to bring them into our photographs. I recommend you read this page first!!
• Natural Lighting = light from the sun. That short description includes a universe of nuance: color, shape, and direction. We'll break it down on this page, then build it back up.
  
• We all know Flash Photography makes some impossible photographs possible. Flash can also be used creatively, too, and we'll discuss how on this page.

Basic photography lighting techniques and principles

Photography lighting is either:

• Naturally occurring.
• Continuous artificial ("hot" lights)
• Artificial flash (aka strobe lighting).
• Any combination of the three.

You could spend your life photographing subjects in natural light only, and never reach the end of all possibilities. Conversely, you can spend a lifetime mastering studio photography lighting techniques with either hot lights or flash.

The rest of us, who aspire to be complete, well-rounded photographers, will need to understand the principles of all types of photography lighting. This opens up a new world of photographic opportunity: mixing artificial light with available light, natural with flash, and so on. There are no limits to the possibilities!

Photography lighting is about harnessing the inherent properties of light, and matching the variety of "looks" available to us to the subject being photographed.

On the Language of Light page, we look at basic properties of light. If you haven't done so, head to that page and read it before continuing here (you'll understand why, trust me!!).

You're back? Good! Let's revisit those general concepts in the context of what we as photographers can control, or adjustments that we need to make to take full advantage.

Controlling Light's Color

Studio photographers can add colored gels to artificial light sources for effect. Theatrical gels work great for this purpose; they are made to handle hot theater lights, and come in a huge variety of colors. Since they are by definition placed over the light source, and not over the camera lens, they will not affect optical quality, as with on-camera filters.

Natural light varies in color from day-to-day, and from hour-to-hour. Light gets warmer (more red) as the sun nears the horizon, and the red skies before sunrise and after sunset can be used to dramatic and beautiful effect. Once those colors fade, the sky will turn dark, rich blue before it darkens into night.

Be aware of how light's color changes throughout the day, and throughout the seasons, to add interest and variety to how you approach your photography subjects (more detail on this subject over here).

Controlling Light's Size

Artificial light sources when used alone ("bare-bulb") create hard light typical of small sources. This goes for both electronic strobe/flash photography, and "hot lights" (aka incandescent bulbs). In studio photography, much effort goes in to softening down those hard light sources to a degree that fits the subject.

Studio lighting equipment accepts accessories that increase the size of the light they shine on the subject. There is a dizzying selection of reflectors, umbrellas, soft-boxes, and diffusers on the market that soften the edges of these lights; without them we'd need multiple lights to balance shadows and precisely control the illumination on our subject. They are essential tools for controlling and manipulating light in the photography studio.

High volume photo studios will use single- or multiple strobe setups with a single soft-box, mounted overhead and to the front of the subject: this style works for 99% of catalog photography lighting, where the goal is to show the product clearly, and to get it photographed quickly.

Macro photography done in the studio can be done with simple lighting, or lend itself to more adventuresome photography lighting techniques.

On-camera flash photography gives us a lot of options for controlling both light size and direction. We'll discuss those adjustments on the flash photography page.

When photographing under natural light, we are somewhat at the mercy of weather to determine if we will be using hard or soft light. But we're not powerless: we alone decide where, when, and what to photograph. For example, when photographing on a cloudless day with harsh lighting, we can search out subjects under a canopy or porch overhang. Or we can wait until later in the day as the shadows lengthen and shadows soften. We can also place diffusion between the sun and our subject, or just wait for a cloudy day!

There is a lot more on this fascinating subject on the natural lighting page.

The size of our light source has a huge effect on the character of our photographs. Point-source photography lighting creates bright highlights and deep shadows with a hard edge and a brightness range of up to 14 f/stops; this range is well beyond the capability of either digital or silver-based film photographic materials to render detail in all areas. This isn't necessarily bad: some subjects benefit from hard lighting with deep shadows.

Broad-source, soft lighting reduces shadows by "wrapping" around the subject, illuminating it from many angles. At the extreme, hard-edged shadows give way to an even, shadow-less illumination. This light is preferred by product- and table-top photographers, because it shows the subject as it is with maximum clarity. Use this lighting with care: soft lighting can result in dull photos that lack pizzazz.

Controlling Light's Direction

This is pretty simple: For studio photography lighting, place the light to emphasize your subject's three-dimensionality: always off to the side or slightly above, never on axis! Add backlighting for extra interest, which depending on your subject will create catchy specular highlights. Everything else is experimentation, and depends on your subject and your situation.

• Front- or axial lighting. This describes light that originates at the camera. The best-known and least-loved example is in-camera flash. 
  
  Axial lighting, especially when it is the primary photography lighting source, renders its subject flat and shadowless. It is also responsible for "red-eye" in flashed people photos (the light bounces off of the subjects' retinal pigment, which is orange to red, and straight back to the camera).
  
  I have taken to heart advice given to me in my days in architectural photography: never set up the camera with the sun at your back! The subjects appear lifeless and flat: that goes for macro photography and close-up photography as well as buildings! Add in the possibility that your own shadow will fall into the frame of the picture, and you'll see why most photographers avoid axial lighting (there are exceptions, of course, which I'll cover on the flash photography page).
  
  
• Side lighting (45 degrees to axis). Moving the light source to a 45 degree angle to the taking axis (or, by moving ourselves to achieve the same effect) reveals shadows as if by magic. This adds to the sense of depth in our subjects, beautifying nearly every photo subject.
  
  
• Texture Lighting (90 degrees to axis). The name says it all: light that grazes a surface from a low angle (in other words, perpendicular to the taking axis) shows off the texture and structure of surfaces.
  
  
• Backlighting. Light that originates from behind the subject can be dramatic and beautiful, especially with transparent subjects. 
  
  When using backlight, be careful of lens flare (caused by light shining directly on the lens). Backlight can fool your light meter, too, unless there is additional light bouncing back into the subject from the front. Carrying a small reflector is a fast and easy way to balance the deep shadows and bright highlights typical of backlit photographs. Fill flash is another popular method to open up shadows.
  
  
• Specular lighting, aka specular highlights. Specular highlights are bright reflections off of shiny surfaces, originating from point-source lighting. They show up in photographs as very bright points, lacking in detail.
  
  Specular highlights are a side-effect of the main lighting source. Whether they are good or bad is highly subjective! They can, quite literally, add sparkle to our images. In macro photography, many shooters carry a spray bottle full of water to mist their subjects. 

Here are some simply lovely examples I put together:

Front- or axial lighting (left) shows no depth, no three-dimensionality, whereas 45 degree sidelighting (right) begins to show some of the form of the orange.
On the left, more axial lighting. Pretty boring, don't you agree? On the right, the light was moved so as to graze the surface of the bread, highlighting its texture, a much more interesting (and appetizing!) style of lighting.

On the left, front-lighting on a wine glass casts a distracting shadow, and creates reflections. On the right, the same light was bounced off of a white card placed behind the glass, achieving two effects at once: 1. pleasing back light, which causes the liquid to "glow", and 2. a switch from hard light to soft, eliminating hard-edged shadows (note, also, the specular highlights on the rim).

As for controlling natural lighting: we can't control the sun, but we can control when and from where we choose to photograph.  I'll talk more about directional photography lighting on the natural lighting page, including a great tool for predicting the sun's location in the sky at any given date, any time of day, anywhere on the globe.

Controlling Contrast

The harder a light source is, the more contrast it creates, and the more we're required to use a secondary light source to open up the shadows.

Secondary light sources come from a variety of sources, including:

• Fill light from a card or other light modifier, added with intention,
• Fill light from an incidental source, such as a light-colored wall, or a sidewalk,
• Fill flash, either on-camera or off to the side. Fill flash is typically dialed back by at least two stops to prevent it from dominating the photograph.

Diffusion material reduces contrast by enlarging the light source. It also reduces overall brightness of the scene, and demands an increase in exposure that in itself opens up shadow areas.

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Once again, here are the other pages in this Photography Lighting section:

• The Language of Light
  
• Flash Photography
• Natural Lighting

Curiosity about light, and the willingness to explore light in all its subtlety is what defines the finest photographers. Join the ranks: use light as your subject, and your photographs will begin to sing!