Natural light

Natural light is a wonderful medium for photography and to me it doesn’t get enough praise or acknowledgement.  Whilst everyone is grabbing their studio lights and lightboxes, I’m looking for the light that nature supplies and offers us.  It’s not for everyone and thankfully not everyone is using it or even aware of it. I have worked in lots of studios and side by side by many photographers and they are frantically grappling for the studio lighting and at times over use them. Lighting from the front, with a beauty dish, lights from the side and one behind the model to lighten the back.

Less is more and that works really well with photography and lighting. Not many local studios have windows, so i only use the one’s that do. Even on a cloudy day you can find enough light to create some truly wonderful images.

If your struggling to get enough light onto your client/model you move them so they are facing the window, you place yourself between the client and light source so you are getting a well lit focal point. If you need to lighten – darken then camera settings can be amended and there is also the use of reflectors. Reflectors are fantastic and even with a small amount of light you can lighten up a face, give a catch light to the eyes.

If you’ve never used or even thought about natural light, give it a try, you maybe surprised with your results.

This image was taken on a fashion shoot, it was a sunny day, but by the shop window it was a little dark, so a positioned reflector offers up a light source.