Lighting is an important element in digital photography. It can literally make or break your pictures. And it can also add to the emotions of the picture by showing details like expressions and feelings of the subject you’re taking pictures of. In order to make the best use of lighting, we must try and understand the way studio lighting photography works, as it’s a controlled lighting environment.
Light intensity is also commonly known as light strength. It refers to the amount of light that’s available. By using lighting in the right way, a particular subject in a photo can be subtly highlighting, calling attention to a particular object or person in the photo. The idea is similar to that of a spot light, but less intense. When we focus on a particular element in the photo, we are able to see much greater detail of the object.
Another important part of lighting is lighting direction. The position of the lights in relation to the person determines what features are to be emphasized. There are three main locations for lighting: from the front, from the back, and from the side. Lighting from the side accentuates certain elements of the person or object in the form of a silhouette. In certain cases, the light source itself may end up being the focal point that is emphasized.
And finally, we have light color. Unless you’re dealing only with black and white photography, colors play a crucial role. The colors present may show emphasis on particular objects, express certain moods and emotions, and help to make the photos more enjoyable to the viewer and photographer. From a psychological point of view, colors play a huge role. Depending on the emphasis of colors in a picture, such as green for money and red for anger, you can play to the emotions of your picture viewers.
The best example out in the world that utilizes lighting is still life photography. Because photographers are trying to capture a single moment in time, it’s all about focus and waiting for the perfect lighting. Simply by taking different shots, perhaps even seconds apart, you can express different moods and emotions through simple photos of fruits or products. A real world example of this would be online product images. There is considerable time spent to ensure products are seen in the correct “light” and viewed by the customers as beneficial and to enhance the appeal of the product.
This is all done in the hopes that customers that see the image will feel a sense of product practicality, product quality, and for certain purposes, they’ll feel a sense of luxury and style. There’s a reason why picture taking isn’t just as easy as snapping your finger. Light can make a product more appealing, but can also serve the alternate purpose of adding mystery and mystique in a photography to capture the viewers’ attention.
So, not to bring up the classic saying in photography, but a picture truly is worth a thousand words. This really does apply to lighting and photography, since natural lighting is just as important as studio lighting and the two are actually related. Both have the ability to capture the emotion of the photographer, but when it comes to using light, every photographer can make it look different, because lighting is dynamic and is never the same twice.