Take Better Pictures with these Lighting Tips

In this day and age of digital cameras, you’ve probably heard or thought that all you have to do is push the button and great pictures magically appear.Hold on, don’t go so fast.The fact of the matter is, you can have the best digital camera, but if you have no clue in what you are doing, you are gonna take horrible shots.

Well, I would like to share with you some great tips on improving your digital photography skills.  These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer.These tips are about using lighting and they will be some of the best advice and keys to your success in taking great photos.

First tip you will use in regards to lighting.Now if the shots you will take are going to be outdoors during the day, the natural sunlight will be some of the best lighting possible.  Now you are probably thinking, “that’s easy, when you are a San Diego photographer since it is always shiny there”, when in actuality really bright sunlight can cast harsh shadows.Or it could blur the details of faces when the sun is overhead.

Overall, what you will want to do is to have the sun behind you when you take most of the shots.  This prevents the harsh shadows that can be caused by the sun.But there will be those times and instances when you want different angles to get those shadows into the shots.

Now that we know what to do during the day shots, what if you have to take some night shots? 

The trick to taking night shots is to turn off your flash.Now if it is pictch black, of course you will need it, but if there are some lighting, use it, but make sure the shutter speeds are slower to let the light in.  Also you want to stay steady when taking the shot or you will blur the photos.Doing these tricks should make a significantly dramatic difference when you take night shots. 

The third and final tip with using lighting to capture great photos is the golden hour.There is this time that photographers like to call the golden hour or magic hour, and that is sunrise and sunset.

During these times of the day you will capture great shots that allow you to capture more warmer and inviting colors.You’re going to be able to capture the golden lighting you won’t find during any other part of the day.

There you have it.  Probably the biggest key in taking greatshots is to make sure you take advantage of the natural lighting.  Knowing what techniques to use for different parts of the day, or just scheduling a photo shoots to capture those times of day will help you become an excellent photographer.

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