Many photographs often have great subjects in them, but if the lighting is wrong, the whole photo can be ruined. Lighting plays a huge part in creating a great image.
LIGHTING TECHNIQUES
Broad Lighting
This is where the main light is positioned in such a way that it illuminates the side of the face that is turned towards the camera. This technique will de-emphasize facial features and is used mostly to make thin, narrow faces appear wider.
Short Lighting
This is where the main light is postitioned so that it illuminates the side of the face that is turned away from the camera. Short lighting emphasizes facial contours more than broad lighting. This narrow lighting (as it is sometimes called) is especially good for use in low key portraiture. As short lighting has a narrowing effect, it is great for use with subjects that have particularly round or plump faces.
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Flash
"Flash" is a device that produces an instantaneous flash of artificial light (typically around 1/3000 of a second) to help illuminate a subject or scene.
Flash units can be built into the camera, or mounted onto the camera using a bracket or stand alone unit.
Flash is commonly used indoors as the main light source because there is not enough light for the camera to produce images at a desired shutter speed.
Amateur cameras typically have a low intensity flash and the light will often not be strong enough for pictures with subjects in that are more than 3m away. This will produce pictures that are dark and murky with noise (grain effect on the photograph). Try and make sure that your subject is within 3 metres to achieve a good image.
Red eye is also a common problem with flash. This happens when the retina of the human eye reflects red light straight back in the direction it came from. This usually happens when pictures are taken straight in front of the subject's face. Many cameras have a "red eye reduction" setting which can reduce the problem. It is a pre flash that makes the subject's irises contract. Image editing software packages usually have red eye removal features on them too, so it is fairly straight forward these days to correct the problem after the image has been taken.
White Balance Settings
Digital SLR cameras, and most modern good quality compact cameras will have a white balance setting where you decide on what type of conditions the photo will be taken in, rather than leaving it all to the camera.
The easiest option is to set it to auto white balance and the camera will do it's best to make sure the photography is as close to a true replica of what the eye can see, but sometimes it can get it wrong. Modern day cameras enable you can tell the camera exactly what lighting is being used by use of the white balance settings.
Typical selections are Flash, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Cloudy and Daylight. If you select the wrong setting such as tungsten when you are taking photos outside for example, it confuses the camera and you will probably end up with photos that have a slight blue tinge to them. If you use the daylight setting for photos being taken indoors with lightbulbs on (tungsten) then your photos will have an orangey cast to them.
By playing around with the White Balance Settings on your camera you can achieve many different effects and you will understand the effect that different lighting can have on your images. Get the lighting right and the rest will follow.
Learn all about lighting, depth of field, framing and other top tips here and go from taking snapsnots to capturing stunning images.
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