Photography 101: Using Lighting to Create Mood

Perhaps you have seen a photo in the past that really grabbed your attention, one that may even, to this day, be etched in your memory? Do you recall what it was about that photo that made it stand out? Probably not, but, I bet that lighting played a key role in making the photo memorable!

By practicing using available light (light that is provided to you without you needing to use the flash on your camera) you can make powerful photos that leave the viewer with a feeling. A well framed, well lit photo is a wonderful way to create an emotion that evokes the senses. Use of available light was especially intense in black and white photos, when, if you think about it, you only had light and dark to work with. With color photos, using available light can enhance and enrich the viewers experience, as the colors will be better saturated, thus warming the image.

What is fascinating in photography is that most of the time, the person taking the photo won’t realize how acutely intense the photo was until they view it after the fact. However, once you learn what to look for in the viewfinder, you can seek it out time and time again, creating images that reach out and grab the viewer and demand that they study it.

One way you can improve your photos is to study available light when you don’t have the camera in your hands. Remember the movies of old where the director would take his hands and form a square with them, and view the scene thru them? He was not only studying framing and composition, but also to see exactly what amount, or how much light was falling on the subject. By doing so, you learn how much light to let in and how much light to, in essence, crop out. Learning to crop out the source of the light and varying how much you use IN the photo, is what separates a good photographer from a so-so one.

I look at lighting as a matter of “how much light am I letting in, but also, how much light am I cropping out of the shot?” With that simple thought in mind, you will find yourself studying scenes and settings and it will help you become a better photographer!

How much light and what angle it is eminating from will be questions that the artistic or creative photographer will want to ask themselves. Do you want to be subtle with the lighting or do you want to highlight a subject with a blanket of light? Typically less light will create more mood, assuming the shot is framed and composed well. Think about it, what evokes more of your moods? Darkness, or light? Gentle lighting is associated with romantic, subtle, tender feelings or thoughts, as well as the other side of the emotional spectrum can be created with harsh lighting.

Work with lighting to improve your shots…study it, read it, learn what sort of lighting creates what sort of feeling in you. When you realize how it makes you feel, you can use it to share those feelings with others with your photographic images. Practice when you can, remembering that you have an advantage over photographers from the old days, in that it costs almost nothing to view your images after you take them. Those poor guys had to process the film, make contract strips to view which ones they wanted to print and then print the photos until they got the shot they wanted. Now all you have to do is plug in your USB cable from your computer to your camera and open your photo rendering program. It’s so easy today that everyone could be a pro, but only if you work at it!


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