How Light Can Create Beautiful Pictures

Today we want to share with you some awesome tips to use lighting to your advantage during your next photoshoot! Have you ever noticed a picture that was taken in the middle of the day looks way different even a couple hours later? That’s because you can use light to your advantage to create the most beautiful pics. Now, you may be wondering how do we do that exactly? Read on for a few key tips to keep in mind when it comes to lighting and your photos.

Types of Light

There are two different types of lighting that play a major role in photography – hard and soft. What does that mean? Well, hard light is more of your bright lighting which casts a shadow and can draw the attention of the photo to a specific focal point. Make sense? Think of it as the middle of the day shot we mentioned earlier in the blog. Soft light also has shadows; however, the light is more diffused rather than directly on the subject of the photo. Think of when it is cloudy outside, this can be one thing to create soft light in your photos.  Another can be sitting near a window inside.

Advantages of Hard Light

Since hard light is often used to create harsh contrast in your photos, we can use it to shoot portraits. It really can highlight the main point of the photo and make it look beautiful.  It can be used in portrait photography to make you stand out from the background well. Here’s an example of a photo we took during our Sunflower Sessions that utilized hard light to create a contrast between the focal point and the background.

Advantages of Soft Light

So, we know what hard light can do for your pictures, but what about soft light? As we mentioned previously, soft light is diffused making the contrast much more blended together. One advantage of soft light is that your pictures will likely be more flattering than the harshness of hard light. It often will be more natural and require much less retouching than a picture with hard light. Also, it’s a much more popular form of light to use for photoshoots. Here’s a good example of a photo using soft light to create a beautiful result. Soft light doesn’t need to only be on a cloudy day, you can use light shining through windows also.

 Golden Hour

Ah, yes the marveled golden hour. If you haven’t heard of “Golden Hour” (AKA “Magic Hour” to some) it’s basically the first and last hour of light in a day. Taking pictures at this time can revolutionize the outcome of your photos. Most people tend to take pictures at sunset, because let’s be real, we all may not wake up early enough to catch the first hour photos. Bathed in a golden hue, your photos will be sure to have depth and a positive tone to the finished product.

Truth is, lighting plays a huge role in photography and we hope you have gained some good insight on how to use different types of lighting to add effects to your next photoshoot!