Lighting and Lenses

It's one of the unfortunate ironies of the business of photography that the two most important elements in getting great photographs are, for most budding photographers, the least interesting.

The key to any good photo is lighting. Certainly in these days of Photoshop and Lightroom 4 you can take otherwise average pictures and make them better with high tech wizardry, but to consistently get great photos and to get consistently high enough quality to make money from photography, you have to be a lighting wizard.

For shooting outdoors and landscapes that means scouting locations and waiting, sometimes for hours, to get just the right light. It means hiking through the woods in the dark to get back to your car. For portraits and fashion it means never being satisfied with basic three or five point lighting, but constantly trying out new lighting setups to see what results you get.

Photographers use light the same way an artist uses paint, to bring out the subtle perfection in a subject. Good lighting is tedious and meticulous, two reasons few photographers rarely ever master it.

The other element of great photography is great glass. There's a reason many professional photographers will go to great lengths to ship lenses off to a lab somewhere that will fit them for a new camera. Camera bodies come and go but good glass will last a lifetime.

These days it's easier to get good glass without a second mortgage on your house. Computer controlled milling machines and advanced optical coatings mean fewer rejected lenses and less reliance on the skill of the person assembling them.

Sometimes you'll hear people bag on kit lenses, the lens that comes with a new camera. Keep in mind that camera manufacturers have an interest in making their cameras as compelling as possible to new users and the glass they select as the "kit" lens has improved a great deal over the years. Kit lenses are not usually as "fast" as more expensive lenses, meaning the higher priced lenses usually have a wider aperture, but in the middle of their aperture range most kit lenses are quite good.

Even at that the hunt for the perfect lens will be long and expensive and every photographer has bag of old lenses that didn't stand the test of time. That's just part of growing in the craft.

Focusing on those two elements, lighting and lenses, will separate you from 90 percent of the pack who want to be professional photographers but lack the discipline to get there.

You'll find a great many people agonize over the cameras, comparing this feature and that with different manufacturers; many people put less thought into who they marry. And yet the camera is really just the image recording device; lighting and the lens make the image.

Think about the last time you heard someone agonize over the differences between an Alien Bees and Bowens studio flash, and yet those are the people who go on to become professionals make a living.

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Lighting in Photography

Lighting is very important in photography as it helps create a great shot. Below are some basic photography tips for lighting.

Lighting is one of the most difficult things to achieve in photography. It is easy to ruin a perfect photo by having too little light, too much light or a combination of both. The perfect lighting in photography will include a broad light source. In fact, try to have as broad a light source as possible so as to achieve the softest light possible. With a narrower source of light, you will end up with harder light. With a broad light source, you have fewer shadows, suppressed texture and reduced contrast.

Backlighting is the light that comes from behind your subject. To avoid having your subject underexposed and transformed into a silhouette, be sure to use a fill-flash to fill in the needed light and chase away the shadows from your subject.

The brightness in side lighting comes from the left or the right of your subject. This has the effect of casting one side in complete darkness, while leaving the other side in the spot light. This is great if you wish to achieve a dramatic and mysterious portrait photo. An easy way to obtain such a shot is by posing your subject in front of a window, with one of their shoulders close to the window.

Diffused lighting helps you to avoid ending up with washed out light colors and contrasting shadows that are way too dark. As such, it is important to always wait until the sun goes behind a cloud. And if your subject can move, position them in the shade of a building or tree and then take the shot. If you cannot move your subject and there are no clouds in the sky, you could make your own shade simply by using an umbrella or a similar object.

Be careful with artificial lighting as this can cause various flaws in your photo. For instance, the flash in your camera can easily cause red eye if the flash is too near the lens. Camera flashes are also known to cast harsh light on the subject. However, with an off camera flash, you will be able to bounce the light and thereby achieve a softer effect. You should also be careful with regular indoor lights as these tend to give the image a yellow cast, unless of course you are using black and white film.

For more information on photography, please visit: http://www.photography-tips-and-resources.com/.

Joan One is a freelance journalist and creative writer who immensely enjoys writing and researching into any topic under the Sun. She specializes in writing "green" eco-friendly topics aimed at enabling environmentally conscious readers to find simple ways to reduce their carbon footprint and help save our planet.

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Photography and Video: Short and Long Lighting

Short and long lighting are techniques used to bring out the best qualities of your subject. These techniques can also be used on objects but let's talk about faces here. The face can be classified in one of three shapes; narrow or oblong, triangular or heart-shaped and round. No face is exactly any of these but they are more one than the other. Working with the face is a good way to improve your ability to see the natural shapes within a subject but that's another lesson. In most lighting schemes the aim is to make the face look triangular. If you find this idea to be superficial, or worse, untrue, think of this. Most hairstyles are cut to frame the face in a triangular shape. When people look in the mirror they tend to turn their face so it presents them with a triangular appearance. Maybe not when you're concentrating on a task in the bathroom mirror but catch a glimpse of yourself in a store window and notice your reaction. Of course the first thing is you'll do is stop slouching and suck in your gut, then you'll turn your head slightly to one side or the other.

No one wants to look at a mug shot of themselves or anyone else; unless it's the only picture you have of a loved one. So when you're posing a subject you will turn one side of the face slightly closer to the camera. This is very slight in an interview situation or it can be very extreme in a portrait or artistic sitting. The side of the face closest to the camera's lens, no matter how slight that may be, is the long-side. The side of the face furthest from the camera's lens is the short-side.

Now, even though you may be using more lights, let's just talk about two of them: The Key Light, your brightest light, and The Fill Light. Look at your subject and decide on the shape; does it tend to toward being round or oblong? This is easier to see with women since they will have already done most of the work with their hair styling. But it's still important for you to identify it. Then at least the two of you are working together.

Now for the simple part. If the face is oblong shine your brightest light, which is your Key Light, on the Long-Side of the face, the side closest to the camera's lens and your Fill Light on the Short-Side. This will give the face what it lacks: fullness. If the face is round place the Key Light on the Short-Side and your Fill Light on the Long-Side. This will slim the face.

This works on people, dogs, cats, oranges, bananas, jewelry, cars, whatever. Identify the shape. Identify what you want to do with it. Then do it.

Thanks for listening.

Joseph Valentinetti is an author of novels: fiction and fiction based on fact. He writes articles on a variety of subjects, from impressions of travel spots to speculating about the name of the moon, but his focus is on his writing and author interviews. Get better acquainted at http://www.valentinetti.com/. Join his site and get a free booklet on photographic lighting. Pick up his feed and become part of the dialog. Read A Book.

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Lighting Accessories You Might Need

The use of proper lighting in taking photos is very important. This will enable you to take clearer images that you can be proud of, particularly in an environment where light is low.

But to be able to achieve your goal, you need the right accessories for your digital camera. The very basic one is the hotshoe flash. A flash light can be the built-in type or a stand alone. The compact point and shoot camera normally has a built-in flash but for those serious in photography, using a stand alone flash is essential.

Flash units vary today. There are now the lightweight and portable types capable of providing speed light. There are also units that can be controlled remotely. Regardless, one thing that you need to make sure is you get one that's compatible with your digital camera.

If you use a flash unit, you will also need a hotshoe adapter. This connects to the sync cord of the flash to your digital camera.

An innovative lighting accessory you can also use is the camerabright lights. This product can be connected to the tripod mount of any brand of camera or even a camcorder. What it does is get rid of the red eye effect thereby achieving better photo composition and well lit images.

There's also the reflector diffuser ideally used in the studio. This tool works by serving as a fill light substitute for portrait photography.

Another thing you might want to consider is the softbox. This is normally lightweight with a wire frame and diffusion fabric and can be set up in a few minutes. It should come with a flash mounting bracket that can accommodate speed lights. You can also get the softbox kits if you wish.

Did you know that you can use an umbrella as well in photography? Experienced photographers particularly the old-timers depended on the silver umbrella to achieve softer light while shooting. You can get the same effect by using white translucent umbrellas. The idea is to bounce off light from your subject.

Keep in mind that there are different types of light. There's the hard and soft light and then there are also the hot, warm and cold light.

Hard light comes from a small light from a distance and creates strong shadows. Examples are the sun and the bare bulb. Soft light, on one hand, comes from a large diffuse light and does not create shadows.

The hot light, meanwhile, refers to the tungsten light that burns continuously and can be used with movie, videos and scanning digital cameras. The warm light is produced by a flourescent or strobe light and is ideal for fast action scenes.

Finally, the cold light refers to the electronic flash. For studio use, there are the monolights and the powerpack/head systems. They basically have a flash tube that surrounds an incandescent bulb.

So depending on the kind of photography you're engaged in, there are different lighting accessories you can use to improve your images.

For information about camera stores, visit 42photo.com, New York's legendary camera store in business for over 40 years.

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