Better Photos
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Better Photos
003 The Magic of Light in Photography
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This episode dives deep into the importance of light in photography, exploring how it can transform images from average to extraordinary. We cover essential techniques to understand and use different types of light effectively, whether indoors or outdoors, and discuss the importance of maintaining a cohesive style through lighting.
• Identifying and using soft vs harsh light
• Adjusting settings for quality in photography
• Tips for utilizing outdoor light effectively
• Best practices for indoor photography
• Creative lighting techniques such as dappled light and silhouettes
• The impact of light on portfolio cohesion
• Encouragement to practice with light variations
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Hey, mama, whether or not you're trying out your camera for the very first time or you've been doing this a while and just looking for some creative inspiration, I've got all that and more. I'm here to help you see your world differently, challenge you creatively and find your passion for photography. Hey guys, welcome back to the Better Photos Podcast. How are you doing? Did you work on your challenge from last week, working on focus points and focus area? I have a confession to make that I, honestly, when I got my Sony okay, so when I had my Canon, that is what I really bought it for, it was for all the focus points. But when I got my Sony, I pretty much went on YouTube and typed in what settings are best for family photos and adjust my camera accordingly. So I I learned something new this week too, and so I tried out the spot tracking mode and I also tried something new with back button focus, which we did not talk about last week, but basically that is, instead of your shutter pressing down halfway to focus the shot, you use a button on the back and mine says AF on that focuses the shot for you. So at my last session, I not only tried the spot focus. I also did the back button, so hopefully you guys tried out something new, learned something new. Also, last week we were talking about snow and it unfortunately did not snow at all in Charlotte last week, so we bought all of our snow gear for nothing. We're hopeful something else will come next week, but the weather keeps changing, so I have no idea what is going on with that. Also, I talked about this app last week that is supposed to take, like your old photos and make them come alive, and I don't know if you saw my stories, but I tried it out with a picture of my grandparents and while it took me a lot of tries to find the right setting so there's like things, different things you can do you can do where they kiss, hug, dance, and none of those worked for me or I couldn't figure out how to do it, and apparently if you pay for it, you only get like 10 credits, so you get like 10 tries, I think it was, and when none of those worked, it made me pay for more tries and I was like determined to get something that worked. So if you try it, try it with an old photo, get a good quality of it. Mine was a picture of a picture that my mom sent me, so maybe try scanning in a photo and then use live photo on the app. If you try it, if you saw it, it looked okay, but it doesn't look exactly like my grandparents. So when they turn to the side I don't know it like lengthens, their noses or chins or I don't know. So that's what I'm saying. If you have a better quality photo, then maybe that would work.
Speaker 1:Um, also, I ordered okay, so I'm like a sucker for things that get sponsored on my Instagram, especially, um, like wellness related stuff and photography stuff, of course. So there was this camera lens. That which my word, or like things that I like loved last year, that I want to like try more of this year, is like nostalgic photos, like vintage vibe, like the grain, the photos that are kind of effortless and just will remind you of like childhood or like your kids of their childhood. Um, and so this lens is like a I think it's like a kind of like a disposable camera, look, but also like film grain stuff like that, and it was only $50. So, of course, I bought it and it's supposed to come on Friday, so I'll let you know how it goes or show some sneak peeks of that, but I think it's called like pocket dispo I'm not sure, but I saw a lot of photographers that I follow and admire. They also were following this company, so that gives me some hope in trying trying it out. So I love trying new things, especially when I have like an idea of what I want my photos to look like and how I can incorporate more things to make it look that way.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, this week we are going to talk about such a huge topic. Besides your settings and getting things in focus, focus we are going to talk about light. Light is so important and, honestly, the biggest game changer when it comes to photography. This is what is going to set you apart from beginner to professional, or at least look like it, and this is knowing your light and knowing how to adjust your camera or yourself depending on the light. All right, so first we want to talk about soft versus harsh light.
Speaker 1:Soft light is going to give even tones. You're not going to have like super dark shadows and you're not going to have super bright highlights in a very short span of an image, if that makes sense. Like I still want contrast in a photo which I do like blacks, even though I kind of pull mine up a little bit, but you do still want a range of those things. But harsh light is like when you have dark, dark, dark, dark side of your face and then like a super white spot on your nose and then dark other places and just super white spots. So that harsh light you can definitely see it on this reel that I posted on Instagram at be posh photo. That's like a Barbie head and it's like why I don't take photos at 12 pm, at noon, that is because the sun is directly above your head and it is casting harsh lights on your face. It is so unflattering and there's really nothing you can do except for shooting in shade, but even then it's like the sun is at the highest point in the sky. So if I could recommend one thing, do not shoot at noon. Earlier fine, later fine. You can learn to work around different things, but soft light is always going to give better skin tones, better textures and, overall, more flattering light, all right.
Speaker 1:So another thing is quality of light. So you'll notice, if you take pictures on your phone at night, your photos are going to be very grainy. They are going to maybe not even focus on what you want to focus on. They are just going to be very low quality photos. The more light you have, the higher quality that you are going to have of a photo. So think about that when you're taking photos. Think about, okay, making sure that your ISO is properly adjusted, making sure that all your settings are correct so that you can have a good quality image with the light that you have available to you. Indoor and outdoor, there's going to be different things that play into whether you are shooting outdoor or whether you're shooting indoor. So when you're shooting outdoor, the type of light that you have is sunlight, and that is going to be more of a yellowy tone, except for overcast days are going to be more of that gray like bluer tone stuff. Okay.
Speaker 1:So if you're outside and it is so bright, you're going, you may want to look for shade. You want to look at your subject and if they are having like too many shadows or too many highlights, especially like on the nose or under the eyes, then you want to find some shade. You don't want to shoot where, if you look at the ground and you see a high contrast, where the grass is so bright and then there's like a line that shows the darker grass. You don't want to be shooting In that type of high contrast. That is not going to be soft light. When you're beginning you want to kind of find the most even light. So I would shoot in that all shade, or you can shoot in the light, but you're going to make sure that your subject is more facing the light so that they're getting better light on their, on their skin, which is better for their textures. I always try to keep in mind to have my subjects looking at the light, no matter where that is, because that is going to help with the textures and of their skin, on their face and you don't want raccoon eyes and you don't want faces that you're going to have to edit with exposure later, which sometimes I have had to do that. So if you can just get it right in camera, then that's going to be less editing for later. So outdoor you you can try shade you can try we'll talk about later like creative light If you are in harsh lighting situations, turning your subjects with the light behind them, but not shooting directly into the sun but really close up and just changing your angle if you're getting too much haze on the back of their head.
Speaker 1:So sometimes if you're shooting with the light behind a subject, then you can get really hazy and not crisp like faces. So you may want to change your angle, whether you're shooting up into their faces or shooting down or making sure that the sun is not directly coming into your camera lens. Having somebody kind of block it or just changing your angle can help with that haze or with which. Sometimes again, with creative light, you may want the sun flare. But I find when people are looking at the camera and their faces are hazy, it is not a good quality. And I don't mind if it's a creative one, where they're not looking at the camera and maybe I'm like focused on their hands holding something and their faces are hazy and they're not looking at the camera. But when someone's looking at the camera, people want to see their eyes, people want to see like make that connection with them, and so I don't suggest having that haze in that type of photo.
Speaker 1:All right, so for indoor, my biggest recommendation is to turn off the inside lights. So, how I said, natural light outside the sunlight it's going to be more it's actually like a bluer light than the light that is inside your home. So whenever you are shooting with indoor lights and natural light outside, when you edit it's going to be two different color tones, and especially on people like the light indoor light and the outdoor light is hitting someone's face, you are going to have orange light to color correct and blue light to color correct, which is going to take the color out of your subject's skin. So I know that sounds really confusing. So just think about when you're shooting something inside and it's sunny outside, then turn off the inside lights, especially when this comes to even taking pictures of your food. Turn off the inside lights, go take it over by a window and photograph with the brightest natural light that you can. Trust me, it'll make your food look so much more appetizing than photographing it in that orange, uh ugly light that is casting shadows on that food.
Speaker 1:Um, if you are shooting inside, you can play with that artificial light. I would try things like still having the subject look towards the light or maybe even have it like in the background. Um, if you need to brighten up a room and you have the natural light, then maybe the lamp is in the back and someone's blocking it a little bit so you see, like their silhouette maybe, um, it's just like a piece in the background that's just illuminating not your main subject, but as like a extra little piece of light back there or creative element, um, getting close to a window. So sometimes if I go to a house and it is really dark, I get everyone close to the window. Make sure to adjust your exposure so that people are not super bright. Again, you don't want to go back and edit people. If you shoot too bright and there's lots of highlights, you are not going to be able to bring back that information in Lightroom or Photoshop or wherever you edit. If you're shooting raw and you shoot super bright, where there is these highlights, it will not bring them back once you bring down the exposure back in Lightroom or whatever else. So you always want to shoot lower and get more shadows. Make sure that your highlights are correct and not super bright so that you can pull up shadows later. So I always try to make sure that I shoot under that zero and never at like a two on that meter that we were talking about week two or week one. So if you missed that episode, go back to episode one and listening, listen to about metering and your settings, and then this will be um, just icing on that cake of what you've already learned.
Speaker 1:Um, so shooting near a window, um, making sure that your subjects are looking towards the light. If they are looking at you, don't have their heads right in front of the window with their backs to the window looking at you again. That might heads right in front of the window with their backs to the window looking at you Again. That might be too much haze on their face. I try to get up above the subject or to the side, or I have them like with the window, like facing towards them, or where they're facing the window and I am in a different spot of the room. So making sure that your subjects are well lit in their faces is ultimate priority. When you are shooting or whatever else, you want to be the focus you want if their hands or feet or whatever and try to make sure that they're not looking at you, otherwise the viewer's eye wants to go straight to their eyes and if that is not your main focus and it is like hazy and not a good quality of light, then the image is just going to lack a little bit in what you are meaning to do.
Speaker 1:All right, so outdoor light we talked about being in shade, um different places outdoor. If you are shooting earlier in the day, look for like a tree, like a wooded place, look for trees where you can get light that is kind of being filtered through some people. Again, we talked about like the snow being like a um reflector and some people have about like the snow being like a reflector and some people have things called diffusers, which is is like a white sheet or it could be like a white curtain or something that is making the light diffused and not so harsh coming through your subject. So some of those really cute like where they're hanging up the, the blankets or linen and doing those like what are they called Clothesline sessions, then that is also helping you be able to shoot earlier in the day because you're diffusing the light. So sometimes I can shoot earlier in the day if I know that I have a background that is not wide open. Those fields that are wide open I tend to leave.
Speaker 1:For if you're doing morning, then do like right right at sunrise or at night. I do an hour before sunset because I really want, if the sun is out that light. That's the warm tone that lays on everything when the sun is going down, but then you also get some of the blue light. That is really fun after. So it makes for a wide range of editing afterwards when you have some like a harsh light right before the sun goes down, then the golden light, then the blue light, but it makes for a variety of a gallery blue light. But it makes for a variety of a gallery.
Speaker 1:And that is what I really love is that if I'm not shooting indoor because I find indoor to be just a little bit it's good with the light because I know where to shoot. But it's also the pressure of getting the room that people want. You know, like, if people want like a magazine photo look of their room, then what people are doing is they're either bringing um like reflectors or maybe flash, maybe they are putting their camera on tripods and putting it down really low so that you don't have to worry about like a camera shake, putting it down really low so that you don't have to worry about like a camera shake, um, but it really just depends on what the light is outside of, how bright of a room I get or how much natural light is in the room that I have. So when I shoot newborns I shoot like around 9, 30 am to 10 am anytime really. That is like 10 am ish or if I was going to do the afternoon, probably like three in the summer and then maybe like one or two in the winter, just so you get some of that light that's coming through the windows. And I also ask for a photo sometimes of the nursery before a session so that I can see how much light I'm actually going to get. You're welcome to try flash photography.
Speaker 1:I don't personally love flash because I feel like it looks a little too fake, a little too not real. I'm I don't know. I just like really love the thought of like someone peeked into your life and saw this beautiful moment and captured it. That is like my uh view of photography. Um, behind the scenes it's obviously not really like that. There's a lot of prompting, a lot of chasing, a lot of craziness, a lot of bribing. But when you look at the images, I want it to look like it kind of happened more naturally. And when you add a flash, then I can tell when people are using a flash and it just makes me feel like this is not authentic. But having a flash obviously helps, and I know that there are some great classes out there that will teach you how to use on camera flash and make it look really natural. So you're definitely welcome to explore that avenue.
Speaker 1:I would only use flash if I was trying to do mimicking some of those, um, new trendy I don't know if they're still trendy, but they were the like disposable camera flash photography, um, so that would be just for like a moment or like again to add variety to a session, um, okay, so now talking about creative light, and so I did a series a while ago on my Instagram. That was kind of like a beginner class and it was reels that I posted and the hashtag was BP photo class and there was a light one on there, and some different lighting techniques can add to your variety of your gallery and make shooting so much more fun. So the first set of light that is more creative would be dappled light, and so this is if you are inside, you see the shadow and light of blinds on the floor, or you see the window pane. You know shadow on the floor. Whatever you see, that's like super high contrast, like light and shadow. When it's really bright outside the window, that is like dappled light, anything that makes like a pattern with light. So outside sometimes I find like leaves. You know that the sun is shining through the leaves and it projects a shadow on a wall and you can really use that creatively to draw the viewer's eye to something. And so maybe a kid is laying in the dappled light.
Speaker 1:I just posted a newborn photo on my Instagram at Be Posh Photo. That was in dappled light, like some of the lines from the blinds were casting on the bed, and so I put the baby right there intentionally just to draw a little bit more intrigue to the subject, and so that can be used. Then another one is artificial light. So if you're turning off all the lights, you're shooting at night and maybe you have a child that is close to a nightlight or their bedside light and they're reading a book and you want to get some of that as your image. Or maybe a kid is under the bed with a flashlight and you're not looking for the best, you know skin tones and you know non-wrinkled faces and whatever Like that can be a great like shot to add some variety.
Speaker 1:Another one is silhouettes. So if you are shooting inside and there's a lot of sun coming through the back or through the window, then you can have people like facing each other and just put your exposure down enough to where you can just see their silhouette, so they've turned like kind of like a black outline and then just the light is really bright behind them, or even outdoor. You can do this especially like with maternity. I love to hold up like a lace, blanket or something like that or a sheet and then putting somebody that's pregnant behind and the light is like coming through but making that shadow of her belly, and so that is like a creative maternity shot. Um, you can also do that with kids. I've done that a lot.
Speaker 1:Um, just having some silhouette type fun when the light is kind of going down at the end of the day or coming through the windows, if you were doing outside or even inside, some of the high contrast or full sun shots can be fun. If you have somebody looking directly or facing let me say facing direct towards the sun, maybe their eyes are closed and you are turning your exposure down again so that you don't blow those highlights and just everything behind them is going to turn really dark, and so it is a great way to add focus to your subject. So think about what you want to illuminate, what do you want the viewer's eye to go to, and it can really play a part of storytelling and just helping your viewer see what you're trying to communicate or what is the main focus, or just guide the viewer into an experience by the way that you use lights and then also being able to give, like a wide variety of shots to your client, to your client. The one thing I will say about light is that this is something that will make you look cohesive on your feed or it can make you look super not knowing what you're doing. So a lot of times on Instagram I will look at a feed and I'm like, oh, I see this great soft light, but then I see this like horrible green lime light that has people with really bad shadows and I can tell they shot like in midday. Then I see this like soft, like golden light. Then I see, um, you know, super bright light. So you got to think about like your lights and knowing what you're doing with your settings to make your feed look a little more consistent, mainly because, yeah, it's one thing to have like a pretty feed, but it's also like establishing what.
Speaker 1:If you're a photographer that has a business or is charging people for photos, I want people to know that what they see on my Instagram is exactly what they're going to get when they hire me. I don't want them to see like a jumbled up mess of like sporadic images that look like I have no idea what I'm doing. When it comes to light, and while the images may be different, like I said with like the high contrast stuff, I still lower the contrast in editing, which we'll talk later in a future episode about editing. But even the different looks like my feed still looks consistent and cohesive and that is just to show my clients that what you see on Instagram is what you're going to get to and when I guide my clients on what time of day we're shooting like. Yes, I know your little ones need to get to bed or they have naps, but lighting plays a big part in the way your photos are going to look and if you like really resist the times that I suggest, then your photos are not going to look exactly like my feed.
Speaker 1:Um, so that's just something that, like I have a conversation with um, like again, like, if I do earlier than I'll mention like, okay, like I need to look for you. You know dappled light or you know shade or not. We're not shooting in a field with no trees at 10 am or even like 2 pm. If we are shooting in a field with no trees or nothing like, we are waiting until the light goes down, and that is for the benefit of my client, because they are not going to like photos that don't make them look good. So light can play such a big factor in whether or not people like their photos, because people like when they look good.
Speaker 1:And if you have taken your own photo, then you know that as well. That when you were taking a photo in inside bathroom light in an old bathroom versus in front or in your car, let's be honest, like when you're sitting in the front seat of your car doing like your Instagram photo or whatever, like you're like oh, yeah, this looks good and it's really just because the light like another thing too. Not to get off topic, yeah, this looks good and it's really just because the light like another thing too. Not to get off topic, but I mean it's still with light, but like when I look at before and after photos of like med spas or makeup or like whatever, and it's like I notice that it's yellow, dull light in the first photo and then they've moved to natural light. I'm like, did anything really change other than the light? No, and so I'm like, wait a second, put me, put that client in the same light and then let me decide whether it looks better or not. But obviously this is like a trick of the eye, is that they are making their weight loss look more significant with the light that they use and or their makeup or their results or whatever. And obviously that's like you know something that they purposely, intentionally try to use to to sell something. But anyways, I know their secret. Um, all right.
Speaker 1:So this week your challenge will be to shoot in different types of light.
Speaker 1:So maybe try going outside in the morning and taking a shot, maybe going like an hour before sunset and taking a photo.
Speaker 1:Maybe taking a photo in shade, maybe taking a photo where the light is kind of peering through the trees and then maybe switching to inside photo.
Speaker 1:Maybe taking a photo with your subject by the window or by the trees and then maybe switching to inside photo, maybe taking a photo with your subject by the window or by the door and turning off all those inside lights, and then maybe try putting at night, when the lights are all off, maybe try using some artificial light just to see what that looks like and the difference between it. So that is like something that you can work on and something that will really make a big impact on your photography. And next week is going to be something just as important and one of my favorite things coming from an art background, we are going to be talking about composition. Coming from an art background, we are going to be talking about composition, and so that'll be something that you'll want to come back for and get another little tidbit on how to make better photos. So hope you guys have a great week and we will see you next time.