Next in my series of “How to take better photographs of YOUR children” is probably THE most important part of any photograph, it can make a iphone photo look amazing and equally if its not right even the best camera wouldn’t look good!!
I of course want to keep this as simple as possible rather than talking about lighting styles with professional cameras, we are talking about natural light. If possible never use a flash, a flash used well can be beautiful but on top of a camera with the subject looking direct at you it usually means red eye and bad shadows. Which noone wants, so if possible always try photos without the flash especially phone flash! So first you need to think where is the light and where is the dark areas of the place you’re taking photos. If you’re inside, its windows and doors and areas without any of those will be darkest, if you’re outside its the sun and will depend on what time of day it is and how sunny or cloudy it is.
Starting with inside, if you would like a nice even light, its probably best to get your “subject” as near to a nice big window as possible. If they face the light as long as its not too bright it should give a nice even light, although personally I like ever so slightly angled to the light. If its really bright outside and its causing shadows you could try backlighting but that takes practice and with some cameras will just look like its poorly taken or may come out as a silhouette. If they turn their head away from the light so only a partial area catches them that is likely to give you the worst results. The first shot was taken just with natural light in a light coloured room, the light is lovely an even so no bad shadows. The next three are on my iphone, all just ad hoc photos. The first two the light is on Mia’s face so work well the last one in red shes moved and turned her head away from the light so you should be able to see where it has made her face look shadowy.
Then outside light. This will change depending on the day. Most photographers agree the best time to take outside photographs are the golden hours so the couple of hours after sunrise and the couple before sunset. Its the same principle as inside but its a lot less controlled. On a cloudy day it will often be easier, as the sun isn’t constantly moving and creating new shadows, my suggestion is in high sun to try and get low down and try backlighting, it might not work depending on your camera but you might get something fun. I have done silhouettes in high sun, this shot looks fun but when I took the light side of her face its far too shadowed.
If there is no clouds look for some kind of shade, trees work well. This one of Mia and me (taken a while ago) it was so sunny that day, so much it made us squint, but by going under the shade of the tree it meant the sunlight framed the back of the photo without causing bad shadows or squinting.
Although Mia doesn’t look happy does she??
Once you’ve got the hang of lighting it’s fun to try different sources, work with sunsets and have a play. This last shot of Mia was taken on my iphone – no special lighting in fact what has caught her attention is the TV which is lighting her pretty little face.
Now go have fun and make sure you like the page www.facebook.com/juliaandmia to see links to the rest of the series. I’d love to see your shots too, so do message me on there so I can share your results!
