Photography 101: Light

Now that you’ve decided on the camera you want, you’ll need to figure out what photos to take – and how to take them. To do this, you need some basic information on key photography concepts, like lighting and shot composition, and you’ll also need to know some tips and tricks for photographing different kinds of subjects. This series of blog posts will address these topics. We’ll begin today’s lesson with lighting. The first thing you have to decide is what kind of light you want.

 Hard Light 

“Hard” light comes from direct sunlight and very bright sources of light. It can also be produced by shining a small, direct source of light on your subject. Hard light can be useful for edgier, grittier photography. Knowing this, it makes sense that hard light will also bring out (and even exaggerate) any less-than-perfect qualities in your subject, so it tends to be less popular for traditional portraits.

Hard light works well here.

Soft Light 

Also called “diffuse light,” soft light is indirect and can come from a larger light source (not like the direct sun, more like a light that is bounced off a wall to fill a room). Soft light does exactly that – it softens your subject. It’s often a very popular light for portrait and glamour photography. Think of movie stars in the 1930s and 40s who always looked like they were being shot through gauze (which they often were!). That’s the kind of effect you’re going for here.

Flickr user Lizbokt