The Importance of Lighting in Professional Photography - Photos by Cheryl

Have you ever taken a photo on your phone’s camera and then look at it later? You may be wondering why some of your phone’s photos look so dark in some spots, or blurry, or just not quite right. Chances are, it could be the lighting.

If you’ve got a big life event coming you, you already know you don’t want to look at photos later only to realize the lighting is all wrong! Here are some more points about the importance of lighting when it comes to professional photography.

Setting the Right Mood for Your Life Event

When it comes to creating the perfect image, lighting is such a key factor. Light can determine tone, mood, and atmosphere of the moment in the photograph as well as brightness and darkness.

In order to get the best texture, vibrancy of colour and glow on the focus it is necessary to control and manipulate light correctly. I usually create professional looking photographs with style by distributing shadow and highlights with accuracy.

Light Positioning

The direction in which your photo’s lighting comes from makes a huge impact on how it falls on the focus of the photograph.

• Flat lighting is light pointing directly onwards, originating from behind the camera, which also causes shadows to fall in the background of the image.
• Side lighting shows the shape of the focus more and give it a more dramatic look by casting it in partial shadow. An effective common example is Rembrandt lighting (using one light and a reflector, or two lights).
• Lighting from behind the focus, i.e. the light hitting the side of the focus, makes the moment brighter and gives it an alternative effect, creating a more distinctive and dramatic photo.

Light Shaping

To reduce glare and harsh shadows and diminish blemishes on your focus, adding a diffuser to your light source helps. This gives artificial light a more natural looking and softer result. You can diffuse light in your photos using soft boxes, umbrellas, and sheer heatproof material, all of which recommended to achieve this result. 

Light Manipulating

Using diffusers and reflectors, light can be manipulated to fall on an area of interest in the focus. Collapsible reflectors shape sunlight or bounce the flash’s light with on the area that could use emphasis. Covering spotlights in light shapers enables me to have more control over the direction the light falls and how broad it spans.

At the end of the day, all of this means that it takes a really keen eye and lots (I repeat, lots) of experience as a professional photographer to understand how important lighting is in photographs. It really does matter. Don’t make the same mistake of not taking light into consideration with your next event’s photographs. Contact me if you think my work is the perfect match for your photography needs.

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