The Importance of Lighting for the Photo Shoot

I've been thinking about this topic for a while and I wanted to talk a little bit about the importance of lighting when shooting. Have you thought about it? The camera, like our eyes, need light to see the object you want to photograph.

Cameras have different abilities depending on the brand and model, some with more ability to see when there is not good lighting in the place, others without this ability, which makes it very difficult to get good pictures due to the lack of lighting in the place.

In addition to the capabilities of the cameras, you also need to observe the time and place where you intend to do your photo shoot. Excess lighting can also cause difficulties when carrying out your photo session. So far we are talking about natural lighting. The choice of time is important, as the light during the day has some different characteristics, the light at sunrise has a different direction and color from the light generated at noon, since the position of the sun at that time is very different from the light of sunrise and sunset.

Many photographers avoid working midday, not because they want to have lunch, but because midday light is stronger and the position of the sun is not very favorable, since the light at that time of day casts a shadow on the eyes of the person who is there. being photographed, some people call this eye shadow panda eyes, I prefer to avoid it too, as well as some photographers I know.

I prefer to work at sunrise or sunset, precisely to avoid panda eyes on the person I'm photographing. If I have to work with a client around midday, whenever I can, I look for places with shadows to avoid direct light on the person's face, so I avoid eye shadow and also avoid having the person's eyes almost closed, because when the sunlight is too strong we have the habit of squinting to prevent that amount of light from entering our eyes and hurting our eyes. So, whenever I can, I take that person to a place with good shade and do my work there.

The place where you are or even the clothes you are wearing can influence the final result of the photos. Did you know that sunlight when it comes into contact with some surfaces it bounces and sometimes comes back different? If you are wearing clothes with very bright colors, when the light touches your clothes it bounces back on your face and other parts of your body now with a more reddish color. The same situation occurs if you are going to do your photo session in nature, it is important to observe how the light that touches the leaves/grass returns to the person being photographed, because in some cases the sunlight returns more greenish and leaves the face with that color, which I think is not what you want.

So far we have talked about natural light and how natural light can cause problems if it is not chosen and observed consciously. I do a lot of photo shoots using natural light and I always try to observe how the light in the place behaves. But along with natural light, I tend to use artificial light in my photo shoots.

As artificial light I use flash and led. It helps me a lot during the day, but where artificial light helps me even more is in the night photo shoots. I really like working at night, in addition to being a little cooler, I can set up the lighting my way and this is where you really get to see how essential good lighting is. Here you can choose where to place the lighting and next to that you can choose where to have shadow, where you want it well lit, you can use colored light etc etc etc.

So if you want your photo session to be clear and in the language you want, choose the time and place thinking about what you want for your photo session. Note the clothes you want to wear, because as said before, this choice can affect the final result, as mentioned above. Also look at the work of the photographer you want to hire to see if he has the language you are looking for.