First Fundamental: Lighting

In the world of #photography and #videography, lighting is one of the foundational pieces to capturing an image. Only providing enough lighting to see your subject is not enough. Let’s compare the way light impacts our subject’s appearance by referring to the sun. If we lived in a world where the sun is in a stationary position and shines only one way, how would that affect the way we see objects?

Other than the world freezing over on one side of the world and the other being burnt to a crisp, shadows would be an obvious change.

If you were to go outside during the middle of the day and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, you would see there are hardly any shadows. Should be a good thing right? Unfortunately, no. While there are minimal amounts of shadows, they are 1) found in least desirable places such as under a subject’s eye and/or 2) objects have unnatural cooler colors and harsher appearance. There are a few tricks to prevent that, but let’s continue to how our stationary sun changes the appearance of objects.

Another change that I referred to is color temperature. What I mean when I say “Color Temperature” is the color that light is perceived at. Light is measured between 1,000 to 10,000 Kelvin (K) with higher units presenting cooler tones and lower units creating warmer tones. In #commercialphotography, most #photographers will utilize 2000 to 5000K depending on the session.?

So, why should this matter? It comes back to the mood you wish to create with your image. Warmer tones can suggest inviting, cozy moods while cooler tones suggest crisp and clean. If you want to create a professional photo, cool and natural light is best. (Which is between 3100K and 4500K depending on skin tone or branding on a product)

The last change our imaginary sun would create is a camera’s exposure. Exposure is the amount of light that reaches a camera’s sensor and affects how bright or dark an image is. With advanced cameras, the exposure can be manipulated to make the subject more recognizable in the moment. However, not everyone has this option and most people can get away with their phone’s camera and a few photography tricks. One of the biggest tricks, if your image is unbearably bright, is to diffuse the light (making the light look more natural and softer).

This can be standing in a shaded area if outside or placing a muslin cloth in front of a light source if you are indoor. To be sure your camera is calibrated to your subject, click on the subject. Now, if you are in a dark room you need to go to a light source and either move the source or the subject around. You want to bring up the shadows and natural highlights before taking the image so there is less work in the post-editing process.?This will take some practice to develop this skill.

The final implication I want to make is get your lighting correct before you take your photo or video. There are not a lot of tricks to fix lighting or color once an image has been taken. In post-editing, you can manipulate the brightness, shadows, contrast, and so on, however, you cannot manipulate how color is perceived once you take an image without investing in professional software.?(More information about that in future articles)

Let’s have a different scenario about taking a photo of a kid's birthday party. You want to take a before-and-after when the birthday kid blows out the candles. Unfortunately. you take the shot without considering the following. However, the regular lights are turned off so everyone can see the candles shine; the kid is in front of the windows during the middle of the day without any cloud coverage or curtains diffusing the excess light coming in; the candles themselves are a different color temperature then the daylight; and the candles cast unflattering shadows on the child’s face.

As a result, you notice that the overexposed windows make all the other subjects darker than what you saw, the child’s face looks grainy when they stare at their candles, and the candles cast an odd orange hue. What now? You can’t go back and recreate the child’s excitement of blowing out their birthday candles. You can’t go back and change your phone’s settings to adapt to the poor lighting. You can’t go back and ask parents to turn the lights on, partially cover the window, or even take the party outside into a shaded area. This is only one aspect that #photographers and #videographers have to take into consideration before taking their shot.

Trust me, there is nothing more frustrating than trying to take a photo of a precious and memorable moment then going back through and noticing that the image is barely usable. It must be stated to everyone who uses a camera, whether it be a phone or a #Canon. We can’t recreate moments so it’s important that we capture them correctly using the proper visual media fundamentals. My goal is to help others understand the art of photography and videography to better preserve those important memories, build a better business, or discover the beauty that these skills provide. I offer workshops for those interested and to know more about them email [email protected]!