Tip Tuesday – Photography at Home: Effective Lighting

I LOVE taking photos of my friends and family.  When my nieces or nephews are around, I always have my camera next to me and I can’t help snapping away at family meals, baby showers and gatherings and I’m sure you are the same.  But how often do you look at your photos and think, ‘that would have been a perfect shot, if only the focus was sharper; I had framed it more accurately; I’d caught it a second sooner or if the lighting was better?’  When we are with family and friends we want to be joining in the fun, not fiddling around with camera settings and trying to recreate natural moments.  The tips that I will be sharing on Tip Tuesdays will provide you with some simple tools to make sure you capture unique memories and have no more ‘Oh if only…’ moments.  The tips will be simple to follow and can be put to practice with DSLR cameras, compact cameras and even phone cameras.

So lets jump in to the first tip, Effective Lighting.

The first thing to consider when you are taking a photograph is where the light is coming from.  When we are at home this is a really simple question as obviously it’s coming from the windows.  As you can see from the picture bellow, we have a really big window in our living room which lets in lots of light and lights the whole room.  When we have people over I like to sit with my back to this window so my subjects are lit from the front or from the side, depending on where they are sitting.  I have a little blanket box behind the arm chair that I like to sit on as it is a great height for photographing children, adults and the dog (yes I am holding the dog toy – look out for Photography at Home: Pets to find out why!)

Using the light in this way (having your back to it) highlights your subject, darkens the background and gives the thing that makes ALL the difference to a photograph… ‘Catchlights.’  Catchlights are the little reflections in your subjects eyes that really bring them to life.  Without catchlights your subjects eyes will look dull.  Here are three photos of Essie that I took from this position (be aware that these photos HAVE NOT had any kind of editing on them, I want you to see the kind of results you can get without needing to edit) Note the catchlights in her eyes.

What a cutie! The next photo gives you an idea of what your photos may look like if you don’t follow this lighting tip.  This photo is taken on the same day and in the same room but with the window behind my subject.  Back lighting can work beautifully but it is a much harder technique to master.  It gives the photo a lovely soft look, but note how the lack of catchlights make her eyes look dull.

Because not everyone has a window of this size in their homes I have repeated this technique in a strange room on the back of our house – that we refer to as the chalet – which is a dark, wooden room where the dog sleeps.  Whilst it still has a fairly large window, there is an over hanging roof outside so not much light comes in.  You can see from this next set of photographs how I have used the lighting behind me again to highlight Essie and bring out her eyes.  There is also an example of how the photograph would look if taken with the light behind.

Here are two photos showing the same thing, but this time they have been taken on my iphone 4.  I don’t find the camera on this phone to be particularly good but this demonstrates that you don’t need to have an expensive DSLR to make a difference to your photos.

And finally, to finish off the first ever Tip Tuesday here are a selection of images that I have taken over the past year in various houses using this exact lighting technique, standing or sitting with my back to a window.

 

Thanks for reading!  Let me know I the comment box below if you found this useful.  If you have the chance to try this tip out please share your results in the comment box on facebook -click here – https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=631018106952627&set=a.299549380099503.75237.175878852466557&type=1&theater

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