Photography Lighting

Lighting In Photography

Lighting is one of the most important factors you can influence to enhance your photography. In addition to being critical to get the correct exposure for a photo, good photographers manipulate lighting to create a mood, empasize important aspects of a scene they'd like to draw the viewer's attention to, and also subdue less attractive aspects.

The usual problem with lighting is that there is too little of it, and the solution is to use a number of lighting tools. The following can bring more light into your scene:

Built-In Flash

The small flash unit on a camera is designed to take pictures in a darkened room or at night. Hoever, it does have its problems. The light from a built-in flash is so narrowly focused that it creates a bright blast of light with an abrupt falloff into shadow around the perimeter of the scene. Red-eye is also a common problem of using a built-in flash. Sometimes it's beneficial to use a built-in flash outside, when you want to banish unwanted shadows caused by a strong sun.

Reflectors

A reflector is a panel designed to reflect the light already existing in a scene to illuminate points of interest. Reflectors can be very useful for eliminating shadows, especially when there is only one light source in a scene. Although you can buy commercial reflectors, you can easily make your own. A piece of white cardboard is sometimes sufficient, but you keep your eyes open for any household reflective surface you think may be useful.

Auxiliary Flash Units

External flash units have the following advantages over their built-in counterparts:

• You have more control of the positioning and angle of the flash.
• The light is stronger, allowing a larger area to be illuminated.
• You can change the strength of the flash to suit your needs and envirionment.