Take Better Pictures with these Lighting Tips

In this age of digital cameras, you have probably thought that you can just point and shoot and out will appear a great shot.Hold on, don’t go 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 great tip in regards to lighting.Now if the shots you are taking are outdoors during the day, some of the best lighting possible will be the natural sunlight.  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 can wash out the details in faces if the sun is overhead.

Overall, you are going to want to take most of the shots with the sun behind you.  This prevents the harsh shadows that can be 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 have tackled the day shots, what if you are taking shots at night? 

The trick to taking night shots is to turn off your flash.  Of course if it is pitch black you will need it, but for times when there is lighting, you want to use the lighting that is around, but you have to make sure you set your shutter speeds slower to let in enough light.Another thing, make sure you keep a steady hand when you take your shot or you can blur the photos.Doing these tricks should make a significantly dramatic difference when you take night shots. 

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.

It is during this time of day when you will capture great shots that capture more warmer colors.  You will be able to capture that golden lighting you won’t catch any other time of day.

There you go.Probably the biggest secret in taking great photographs is taking 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.