Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Artificial Light Photography


           Artifical light for photography is commonly used in the winter when the sun isn't as high in the sky as it would be in the summer, not to mention it's less enjoyable to be outside in the winter.  Food photography commonly uses artifical lighting, because when taking a series of shots of different foods, the lighting is consistant throughout the shots.  Now, this means taking the shots in a room with no windows which is sometimes hard to come by when not working in a studio.  But it's important to not mix natural with artifical so that everything is constistant. 

           An umbrella light is a very helpful tool when you don't want to cast harsh shadows.  It's often a halogen light that shines onto a white umbrella and bouces soft white light back on the subject of your photograph.  Another type of light sorce thats nice to use in artical light photography is a soft box, which is a bulb light box covered with a diffusion screen that softens the light.  These light can be rather large at 3-4 ft across.  This is can be nice when your subject is larger and you want the light to cover the entire subject evenly. 

           It's very important to bouce light when using artifical light.  Umbrella lights already do bouce light which helps with harsh shadows.  If you have one light source coming from one direction and it's not diffused, you will get a huge shadow which in most cases is not desirable.  If you have light coming from all directions then the shadows are reduced or eliminated and your picture will turn out with a more clean professional look to it.

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