Lighting Tips to Help You Take Better Pictures

In this current time period of digital cameras, you probably think all you need to do is point and click to take great photos.Hold on, don’t go so fast.The fact of the matter is, you can have the best digital camera, but if you have no clue in what you are doing, you are gonna take horrible shots.

I would love to give you some good tips to help you improve your photography skills.  These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer.These tips are all about the lighting and they will some of biggest reasons for you success in taking photographs.

First tip in lighting.Now if the shots you will take are going to be outdoors during the day, the natural sunlight will be some of the best lighting possible.  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 could blur the details of faces when the sun is overhead.

Overall, what you will want to do is to have the sun behind you when you take most of the shots.This stops any harsh shadows in your photo 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 know what to do during the day shots, what if you have to take some night shots? 

The key to taking photos at night is turning off your flash.Of course if it is absolutely dark with no light you wil need it, but for times when there is some lighting, use the lighting around you, but make sure the shutter speeds are slow enough to let light in.Also, stay steady when you are taking your photograph or you will cause the picture to blur.  Doing these couple of tricks can make a dramatic difference when taking night shots. 

The final tips to using lighting for great shots is using the golden hour.  There is something photographers call the “golden hour” or magic hour, and that time 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 have it.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.