How to find the Direction of the Light right in Photography
Before writing this post, I was thinking of how obvious it is for me to find the right direction of the light today and how fun it is that it looks obvious now. It hasn’t always been that way! As a matter of fact, for a very long time I couldn’t quite get it. Finding the right direction of the light was not something easy for me at all and I hope the tips you will find here will help to make it obvious to you just as they did to me.
You are probably sick of hearing that if you light your subject well you will make great photos, right? Ok, but what does “to light well a subject” mean?
I will give you some practical examples of how that works both for indoor shots and for outdoor shots so you will know all you need to know in order to take better photos using the light in your favour.
- Indoor Lighting — The Dramatic Look
If you are indoors and you have a diffuser such as a softbox or an octabox, you can place the light in a 45 degree angle, right over the head, facing down (see example in the video).
When you light the subject this way you will have one side more lit than the other, giving you a more dramatic look to the photos. The biggest the difference between the lit and the dark side of the face, the more dramatic the portrait will look.
This type of lightning is used a lot in Hollywood and I particularly love it.
That is exactly how I’ve been using my light to all of my indoor photos and videos lately.
The closer you keep the light to your head and the bigger the diffuser, the softer the light. A soft light will give your photos a more professional and natural look.
2. Indoor Lighting — The Neutral Look
If you want to achieve a more neutral mood, used a lot in comedy movies and the news, for example, you might prefer to have a more even light. On that case, just place the light right over your head, from above, but lightning the face from the middle — instead of the 45 degree angle — in a way it will look more even (see example in the video).
Or, if you have two lights and diffusers, you can place each one of them on one side of the subject. Same thing, right above the head, facing 45 degree angle, down:
You can also want to take a silhouette shot of your subject and on that case, you will light your subject from behind, with the light facing straight forward to the back of your subject, take your expose down in a way your light will be exposed correctly and your subject will be underexposed, and then, voilá!
3. Outdoor Lighting
Ok, you cannot go wrong with the direction of the light for indoor photos if you follow these tips. But what about outdoor shots? After all, when we are out there, we have many different factors that influence the quality of the light, right? So first things first.
Think about your outdoor shots as an extension of your indoor shots. It’s the exact same thing but now you will deal with the sun, that is our natural source of light.
The clouds or any other white objects can be seen as giant diffusers. For that reason, cloudy and snowy days are great for portrait photos. Ok, that still doesn’t help you with the direction of the light, right? Sure!
But what I mean, is it’s just the same!
Always face your subject towards the light or in a 45 degree angle directed to the sun and just as your indoor lightning, the sun should never be right above your head.
If you place your light exactly above your head, you will create heavy shadows under your nose and eyes (see example in the video) and the exact same thing will happen if you shoot when the sun is high up in the sky.
You will get very hard light and shadows.
When the sun is high up in the sky, it acts as if you had the light right above your head with no diffuser.
Harsh light usually does not make good portraits.
So if you’re shooting when the sun is high up in the sky, I suggest you look for some shadows but still have your subject facing where the light hits him or her harder. So if you are in the shadow, you have a tree on one side of your face and a lake right in front of you, you might want to make your subject face the lake, as the lake will reflect the sky and will most possibly bring some diffused light back to your subject’s face. While if your subject is facing the tree, you will get the shadow from the tree and therefore, less good diffused light to your subject’s face.
If you’re shooting on sunny days and you want to shoot in the sun, early mornings and ends of afternoons are great for portraits.
You will get that light that will fill your subject’s face with a beautifier called "golden hour" or “soft and well diffused light".
Is having your face towards the sun always the best option in this case then? Not really. Sometimes if you have the sun behind the trees and you have an open field in front of you, you will still have a very well lit environment that will allow you not only to have a soft diffused light to your subject's face, but also a very beautiful backlight in the background, that might give you some amazing bokeh!
If you already shoot indoors, a great tip is to try to put your subject in a position where the light will simulate the light you have in the studio!
If not, ask your subject to move and, in case you’re not sure what is the best light, try it out. Stand in front of them and ask them to face different angles, go around them with your camera and see where you get the best results! 5 or 6 shots in different directions should help you be able to see what looks best in case you don’t know just by looking to your subject and the surroundings. That’s what worked best for me in the beginning, when I did not have much experience or lighting references.
I hope these tips help you to find the right direction of the light for your photos.
In case you want to check the lighting equipment I use for my indoor photos and videos:
GODOX SL60W: https://geni.us/ZSooax
OCTABOX: https://geni.us/7ZGtdhE
AMBIENT LIGHTS: https://geni.us/jIyQbGd
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