Key Lighting Tips to Take Better Photographs

In this age of digital cameras, you have probably thought that you can just point and shoot and out will appear a great shot.  Not so fast.The honest truth is, you may have a great digital camera, but if you are clueless in what to do, you will take ugly shots.

Well, I would like to share with you some great tips on improving your digital photography skills.  These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer.  These tips all involve lighting and they are going to be some of the biggest keys to your success in taking your photos.

First tip you will use in regards to lighting.  Now if you are taking shots outdoors during the day, natural sunlight provides some of the best lighting possible.  Now you are probably thinking, “that’s easy, when you are a San Diego photographer since it is always shiny there”, when in actuality really bright sunlight can cast harsh shadows.Or it could blur the details of faces when the sun is overhead.

Overall, what you will want to do is to have the sun behind you when you take most of the shots.This stops any harsh shadows in your photo caused by the sun.But there will be those times and instances when you want different angles to get those shadows into the shots.

Now that we know what to do during the day shots, what if you have to take some night shots? 

The key technique for night photos is actually turning off your flash.Now if it is pictch black, of course you will need it, but if there are some lighting, use it, but make sure the shutter speeds are slower to let the light in.Also, stay steady when you are taking your photograph or you will cause the picture to blur.Applying these couple of techniques will make a dramatic difference for those nights shots you take. 

The third and final tip with using lighting to capture great photos is the golden hour.There is this time that photographers like to call the golden hour or magic hour, and that is sunrise and sunset.

These times of day you wll be able to capture great shots because you will get the more warmer and inviting colors.You’ll be able to get that golden lighting that isn’t available during any other time of day.

There you go.  Probably the biggest key in taking greatshots is to make sure you take advantage of the natural lighting.  Knowing what techniques to use for different parts of the day, or just scheduling a photo shoots to capture those times of day will help you become an excellent photographer.