In this guide, I am going to give you 5 expert tips to taking amazing shots with natural lighting. So without further-a-do, let's get to it.
Tip #1: Shoot at Golden or Blue Hour
For amazing colors and great lighting, I recommend you shoot in golden hour (after sunrise or before sunset) or blue hour (before sunrise or after sunset), here's why:
Instead of shooting in the harsh light from the sun that comes in the middle of the day, the early morning and late evening hours of the day provide soft lighting and beautiful tones/colors. The golden hour gives you warm and golden tones that are amazing for family portraits while blue hour gives you cooler bluish tones when trying to show emotion when telling a story.
Tip #2: Shoot in Harsh Lighting
I know I just said to shoot in soft lighting, but harsh lighting is also great if you are trying to get dramatic shots. The reason for this because harsh light = harsh shadows which results in really contrasty photos. You can get harsh lighting during high noon or whenever the sun is high up and there are no clouds diffusing the light.
Now, between the last tip in this one, I've basically told you shoot whenever, don't do that. What I want you to do is to look at what kind of story or emotion you want to show and what purpose you are shooting for, and then depending on that, choose between soft and harsh lighting. So remember:
Blue/Golden Hour = soft tones/lighting -> good for family portraits or modeling
Middle of day = harsh lighting + harsh shadows -> dramatic shots for artistic ideas
Tip #3: Never Forget to Set Your White Balance
White balance is EXTREMELY important, but what is it? White balance controls the neutrals (whites) in a photo. They can be either to yellow, blue, green or purple. Depending on the lighting situation, the white balance will need to be changed so that the whites actually look white and not some other strange color or tone.
If you get it wrong, your photo will simply look horrible (in most cases, I'll explain later) Look at this photo:
Just look at it: the skin tones are way-off, and everything has a blue tint. All of this happened because of an incorrect white balance, so remember, don't forget to fix your white balance if you want amazing photos.
Now, as I said earlier, incorrect WB isn't always bad because you can use it to convey emotions:
blue -> sad, cold
yellow-> happy, warmth
Look at this photo on the right:
The warmer tones of this photo convey feelings of happiness and love- perfect for family portraits. Changing the white balance of the photo can be done in post production software to convey emotions or strait from the camera (depending on what you own)
Tip #4: Understanding How the Sun Affects Your Photos
Before you take your photo, make sure you position yourself depending on the angle of the sun. The sun gives you some interesting lens flares and produces really cool photos that seem very cinematic.
Shooting directly or into the sun (with the sun in the background/behind the subject) gives a really soft lighting to the face/point of interest on your subject. This is called taking 'back-lit' photos. Back-lit photos also give a golden halo effect that is really beautiful and makes shots look amazing. For model photos, when shooting into the sun there are no harsh shadows and the model most likely won't be squinting at the camera. With the sun (or artificial lights) off to the side, you can get some cool shadows for example when trying to draw attention to an athletes muscles or texture.
For these back-lit photos, experiment with partially blocking the sun with a building or element of your photo so that the sky doesn't get completely blown out, but you still get nice lens flares and lighting on your subject. A great way to make sure the sun is where you want it to be is plan, and there are some useful tools to help you do just that. The app Photopills helps you track what time and what angle the sun will be at hours (even months) in advance so that you can get those perfect banger shots.
Just whatever you do, avoid front-lit photos because they result in less shadows that create a boring, flat image. I mean, you could still use it if you want to, but I don't recommend doing it.
Tip #5: Dappled Light
Dappled lighting is when you have the light source shine through foliage or something that leaves intricate patterns and shadows along your subject's face or in the background.
As you can see in the image above, the patterns of the shadows produce a very interesting set of shadows which make this shot very cinematic. You can use objects such as window blinds, leaves, or wired mesh (in studio) to create amazing, moody photos. One small tip: to make photos with dappled lighting even better, is to push the contrast slider in your camera or photo editing software.
Conclusion
In general, you need to be able to understand what your target result is and then using these tips, figure out what you need to do to get those perfect shots you're aiming for. You also need to be patient and plan in advance using that app I suggested (Photopills - I'm not sponsored btw)
Once again, thank you so much and I hope you gained from this guide on how to take better photos with natural lighting. Don't forget to drop a like or leave questions in the comment section below.
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And for all those interested, I'm planning on doing an advanced guide to lighting in photography so stay tuned for that!