Lighting How To

Just about all cameras used for serious photography, and even many point-and-shoot models, enable users to choose how light in a scene is measured. The video below will help you understand the options available, and when one works better than the others.

It’s one of those debates photographers will probably have for eternity: is it better to shoot using only natural light or with strobe lighting? Of course, there’s no right answer but it’s always fun to put both types of lighting to the test.

Brian Hart considers himself a “light artist” who uses a camera and a light source as his pen and paper. The following video is an informal tutorial that will guide you toward creating some dynamic light drawings of your own.

Commercial photographer J.P. Morgan has over two decades of studio experience, as well as a knack for helping others shoot like a pro. In the video below, Morgan uses his unique teaching style to help you better understand lighting by photographing a ball, cube, and cylinder in one properly lit image.

The intriguing thing about lightpainting is you never know exactly what you’re going to get. And whatever you get, you won’t get it again. That’s part of the technique’s appeal: you’re creating a one-of-a-kind photograph.

Simply, a lightpainting photo is an image made with a handheld, constant light source in a dark room or environment. The camera’s sensor captures only what you choose to illuminate. Lightpainting images can range from relatively simple to fairly complicated. Striking photos can be created indoors with nothing more than a still life subject, a tabletop to put it on, and a small LED penlight to light it. Or you can think big: how about a mega-powerful spotlight illuminating prairie land in the Grand Tetons or a mesa in Monument Valley?