Mastering Natural Lighting - Beginners Guide to Beautiful Outdoor Shots
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced photographer, mastering natural lighting is essential to elevate your outdoor photography game. It can make or break an outdoor shot and has the power to transform an ordinary landscape into a creative and beautiful scene. In this blog post, I'll explore specific techniques to capture stunning outdoor shots using natural light.
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Understand the Direction and cause of Light
If you're just starting out with photography, the first thing you should be learning is where and how light occurs in your photos. Spend some time observing the direction from which the light is coming and what variety of light it is. Are the edges of the shadows hard, or does everything sort of soften into each other? Experiment with different angles. Place your subject in different areas to understand how light enhances your photos.
Here are five types of natural light and how they occur.
Front Lighting: Front lighting is when the main light source is positioned in front of the subject, illuminating it from the front. This lighting setup is straightforward and provides even illumination on the subject's face or front side.
Backlit: Backlit refers to when the main source of light is positioned behind the subject. When shooting in a backlit scenario, the subject is placed between the camera and the light source. As a result, the subject appears darker in the image, often creating a silhouette effect. Backlighting can add a sense of drama and atmosphere to the photograph or, in contrast, can be used along with artificial front light (flash) to beautifully light the whole subject.
Rim Light: Rim light, also known as edge light, occurs when the main light source comes from behind the subject. In this situation, the light skims over the edges of the subject, creating a bright highlight or "rim" around their outline. Rim lighting can help separate the subject from the background, adding depth and dimension to the image. It is often used in portrait photography to give a halo-like effect to the subject's hair or outline, making them stand out from the background.
Harsh Light: Harsh light refers to strong, intense illumination that creates deep, dark shadows and high contrast in a photograph. It's usually caused by direct sunlight, especially during midday when the sun is high in the sky and casts downward, creating sharply defined shadows. Harsh light can be challenging to work with as it can obscure details and lead to overexposed highlights and underexposed shadows.
Diffused Light: Diffused light is soft, gentle, and evenly spread across the subject without causing strong shadows or harsh highlights. This type of lighting is achieved by scattering the light rays, either by passing it through a diffusing material like a softbox, umbrella, or sheer cloth or by using natural diffusers like clouds or fog. Diffused light provides a flattering, smooth illumination that minimizes imperfections.
There are several other types of lighting; however, this is a good handful to start out with. Others include Rembrandt, fill, and butterfly, just to name a few.
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Pay Attention to the Golden Hour
This is probably the most well-known and widely used time of day to create beautiful photos. The "Golden Hour" refers to the time shortly after sunrise and before sunset when the sun is low on the horizon, creating soft, warm light. It provides a flattering glow, making it ideal for capturing portraits, landscapes, and any outdoor subject.
The photo below is an example of that warm glow created by the low sun.
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Embrace Overcast Days
Contrary to popular belief, overcast days are a blessing for outdoor photography. I, personally, would take an overcast day over sunny if I know I'll be shooting a ton and don't have the time to spend setting up every shot. The clouds act as a giant diffuser, creating soft and even lighting across your subjects, so it rarely matters where your subject is placed. You can shoot whatever and wherever without having to think too hard about it, and the photos always look dreamy. I like to focus on close-up shots, portraits, and details. Think Instagram worthy Pacific Northwest vibes for overcast days. Your photos will truly shine under this natural softbox.
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Get Creative with Midday Sun
Most people will tell you to avoid the midday sun due to its harsh shadows and ability to make the person you're photographing look unflattering. This is true to a certain degree. If you're shooting a close-up portrait of someone, then yes, midday sun is not what you want. It'll give your subject dark circles under their eyes, nose, and chin, which is not ideal. However, harsh shadows can be really beautiful if you use them creatively.
Take the photo below as an example. Because I'm not focused on the subject's face, the harsh shadow adds a contrast to the image and give it more depth.
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Use Diffusers and Reflectors
When you'd rather not have harsh light and unflattering shadows on bright sunny days, diffusers and reflectors can be a valuable trick. Diffusers help soften the light and reduce its intensity, and reflectors bounce the natural light back onto the subject, filling in shadows and providing a more balanced exposure. There are commercial diffusers that you can buy or a simple trick is using a white bedsheet or a sheer cloth. Place it between the subject and light source to soften the light. Reflectors should be moved around to get just right and angled in a way for the light to reflect back at the subject. It's helpful to have an extra set of hands for both of these as you might have to make some tweaks to get it right.
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Mind Your White Balance
Different times of the day and weather conditions can influence the color temperature of natural light. Have you ever seen an image that just looks way too blue? That means the white balance is off. Pay attention to the white balance settings on your camera or adjust it in post-processing to ensure accurate colors in your images. Most digital cameras have an auto white balance setting that's accurate 99% of the time. If, for some reason, your white balance looks way off after you've taken the photo, you can always correct it in your post-processing (editing).
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Shoot in RAW Format
If you want to take your photography to the next level, you should always be shooting in RAW format, which is simply the highest-resolution image file your camera can make. When working with natural lighting, shooting RAW allows you to retain more details and have greater flexibility during post-processing. It enables you to fine-tune exposure, white balance, and other settings without sacrificing image quality. It also means your photos can be printed larger than any low-resolution jpeg, which is something to keep in mind if you plan to frame or sell your photos.
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Capture Sunbursts and Lens Flares
Sunbursts and lens flares can add a touch of magic to your outdoor shots. To capture these effects, position the sun partially hidden behind an object (this could be your subject, but it doesn't have to be). Use a small aperture (high f-stop) and move your camera ever so slightly until you see that starburst peek through.
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Practice, Experiment, and Learn
Like any other skill, mastering natural lighting in photography requires practice and experimentation. Don't be afraid to try new techniques, venture out during different times of the day, and learn from your mistakes.
