Light is the main ingredient in a photograph. Of course, there are other ingredients: time, composition, theme, emotion and its unique style, but light is what makes photography possible.
No matter how talented you are as a photographer, if you don’t know the types of lights and the ones to use, your images will be a disaster, lighting is something that should always be taken into account when taking a photo, so it is important to understand the different types of lights and how to make the most of them.
- Basically.
- There are two main types of light: natural and artificial.
- Natural light.
- As the name suggests.
- Is all lighting that comes from nature.
- Such as sunlight or the moon.
- For example.
- Artificial lighting is everything else.
- Unlike natural light.
- Obtained through photography equipment and accessories.
- The lamp in your living room is an example.
This is probably one of the most flattering types of lighting to illuminate a photograph, perhaps because it is the way it most closely resembles the way we see things. When you walk through the park, you face many objects and people, and natural light is the only chance to get the same result from their eyes.
If possible, try using this light, it is relatively easier to use than artificial ones, however sometimes it seems difficult to get sunlight for your photos, so here are some tips to take advantage of natural light to get beautiful photos without any risk. investment.
Photography and portraits of people are the easiest type of use of this type of device. I try to use the light of a window to illuminate an environment or person, if it is necessary to move the star of the photo to another side, or room of the house. Letting in daylight and spreading through the environment will bring a natural and serene look to your images.
You can also use reflectors to direct this type of light directly at the main subject of the photo.
Direct sunlight is one of the worst types of natural light, as it can cause thick lines and shadows, as well as stratamus, which is nothing interesting for your outdoor photos, to avoid it, you must always keep the sun behind the house. camera, to keep the focus of the photo illuminated, but avoiding glare.
Cloudy days are perfect, especially for weddings, although the bride and groom may not agree with that, the light is reflected much better and you can use other accessories to balance the lighting and take a good photo.
Just because the day is cloudy doesn’t mean you have to stay inside!If you’re not a fan of a white sky, you can focus on your subject, get closer and get more details. contrast scene.
When you go out in bad weather, you can come home empty-handed, you feel tired and cold, really?Dramatic photography opportunities are much greater on stormy days and you just have to be there to get great rewards. natural lights that adhere to your photo with extraordinary effect, will leave you breathless at the time of post-production.
One thing that has always surprised me when I photograph a sunset is that as soon as the sun sets below the horizon, all photographers pack their equipment and go home, lose my favorite moment to photograph: twilight, this happens in about 20 minutes. after sunset or 20 minutes before sunrise.
Between day and night, there are several types of color-rich usable lights. While our eyes often look black, our camera’s sensor will see other colors and lots of light, an amazing look for your photos. See any tips on shooting in golden age?
The night is an exciting time to photograph, and not just for the strange people who appear during this period. Certain types of lights, such as city lights, moon and stars, provide an excellent source of dramatic lighting for your photos.
However, to enjoy clicks, you need to adjust the camera to keep the shutter open for extended exposures. Most photographers often use exhibitions for up to an hour!See some tips on?Nightscape photography ?.
Natural light isn’t always enough, you may need to use lighting equipment to create a good environment for your photos. There are several reasons why artificial light is used in photography, some of them may be: you need more light, different light, you need to control the lighting, etc.
We have already seen that artificial lighting is the type of light that comes from a source other than nature. There are four common types of artificial light sources used for photography today, incandescent, fluorescent, LED and strobe.
See also our article on?Equipment to provide ideal lighting and lighting conditions?
This lighting can be used in a normal lamp or in large tungsten lamps, called hot lights, most commonly used in the studio and film sets. They have a warm color temperature compared to natural light.
The light of a naked lamp is very hard, so we use lamps in our homes. The quality of incandescent lighting can be modified by flags, reflectors and diffusion material, they are warm to the touch, so you have to be very careful with children and when photographing objects that melt, such as plastic or ice cream.
Most public buildings and offices are illuminated by fluorescent tubes. These types of lights have been used for decades. They’re not very common in photography, but they can be very useful at one time or another, especially if you’re filming in corporate offices.
The bad thing is that the tubes have different color temperatures, they were traditionally greenish and you had to have a magenta filter on the camera lens to solve this problem.
They are now available in many different colors: cold white, balanced daylight, traditional green or warm white. As a result, white balance in fluorescent lighting is difficult, because you never know what types of lamps are in the reactors, or even if the lamps combine with the filters in your camera.
You could have a piece that has 2 or 3 tubes of different colors, in this case I highly recommend doing a custom white balance using a gray card.
Photographers can also count on new fluorescent lamps, called CFLs or compact fluorescent lighting, which help solve the energy crisis, but actually bring more problems than benefits, many CFL lamps emit dirty electricity, which is totally harmful to humans and causes headaches. optical problems, etc.
In addition, there is mercury in the composition of this type of color, if they are accidentally broken or burned you have to send them to a waste company to avoid environmental pollution, you cannot simply throw mercury into the trash.
Get the kids away! Compact fluorescent lamps are not suitable for home use such as the normal lamp, but to be stored for long periods of time, so they are ideal for warehouses where the lights are permanently lit.
There are new studio lighting kits on the market using these CFL lamps. Its use is most common in the video recording market. But kits often suffer white balance due to poor lamp quality. For this reason, they do not provide good lighting for photos or videos.
LED stands for light-emitting diodes. There are usually a number of light-emitting diodes in each lamp to generate such lights, these lamps are really new to the photography and video market, but their use is becoming more common, especially in the perimeter of lighting for home use. You’ll probably use one if you’re cycling.
Depending on the brand and quality of the LEDs, which can range from very stable in color temperature to very unstable, the brightness may vary and some models have two color temperatures. The quality of the LED light tends to be a little harsh and does not spread too much. , you may need to soften that light with a scatter material or bounce it off a wall.
For first use, it is recommended to leave them in place for approximately 72 hours, this will help stabilize color temperature variations. You can also use color correction gels, and it’s a good idea to use a custom white balance on your camera. The color temperature ratings given by your camera manufacturer, in most cases, will not be sufficient. Perform your own tests.
Some LEDs are not bright enough, so they are not indicated as photo lighting types, unless you use a high ISO setting (800) or if you place them too close to the subject.
On the other hand, if you record inanimate themes, such as a product, you will get an excellent result, they are also perfect for video and can be easily transported without worrying about breaking.
Remember the high school dances with the flashing strobe light and the mirror balloon?Well, that’s exactly what the camera flash is. The types of lights known as strobes or flashes are quite different from all the other lights we’ve seen here.
For starters, lighting is not continuous, on the contrary, it bursts outwards with a lot of light and in a small fraction of a second, so it’s a little harder to control and perceive the performance of your photos.
Strobe lighting is probably the most common type of light used in photography, however, they are not suitable for video, as the length of the video is too short to be filmed.
Similarly, the flash light is also very hard. Most people like to change the light, using plastic diffusers in front of the flash head.
Photographers have been using flashes for studio lighting for many years, and this will not go out of style in the short term. There are many manufacturers of strobe lighting systems and many light modifier accessories to accompany them, such as umbrellas and softboxes.
The answer to this question will depend on what you prefer, if you intend to use the types of natural light we talked about in this article, you can enjoy the sun and make virtually no investment to get great photos.
But, as you’ve seen, it may be necessary to use the most sophisticated types of lights to achieve artificial lighting, with it you will have more control, greater intensity, etc. However, there are countless ways to get the result, so you’ll have to choose one of them.
The first step may be to get a flash for your camera. This is a great way to start using artificial light in your photos. You can also use these types of flashes to fill when taking portraits outdoors.
Many camera flashes can rotate and feature a multitude of accessories to regulate such lights, you can use them in fully automatic mode or control the output more carefully.
The flashes also have options external to the camera, with wireless triggers, you can hold the flash in your hand and change the light angle or get a flash stand to hold it, some tripods already have a specific support for this purpose that you can use to fix the flash near the camera keeping all control over this type of light.
As the light of a flash is very strong, it is recommended to buy additional accessories, such as a small umbrella to soften the light in the portraits. When you’re ready, add additional flashes for your lighting configuration. or group photography, you’ll probably need strobe lights because they have more power.
If you are photographing indoors in controlled situations where no child is running, you can consider CFL kits. It would be great if I took pictures of life. They are very cost effective and can also be used for video. On the other hand, if you want to take jpg photos and record videos at the same time, without having to change the types of lights, you can use LED lighting that will be more suitable.
Now share your favorite light types in your work or leave your opinion about this article in the comments field below.