The One Thing You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Photography

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. For more on our use of affiliate links and our privacy policy please visit our disclaimer page.
I have seen it happen so many times. An otherwise amazing image ruined by one simple mistake. It’s a mistake that so many who are beginning photography make. Luckily, it’s one that can easily be corrected.
Of course, I’m talking about light. Light can either be a photographer’s best friend or their worst enemy. Paying attention to both natural light and artificial light can improve your photography almost instantly. This quick and easy photography tutorial for beginners will help you get started with looking at your natural light options before setting up your shot.
The Golden Hour
When working with natural light, or light produced by the sun, there are certain times of day that are better. The type of light you want can also depend on the overall mood of the image.
As a rule, early in the morning and late afternoon are considered to be the best times of day for most photography. This is because the sun is in the optimal space in the sky for the best lighting. During this time of day, the angle of the sun produces softer shadows and contrast is lower.
When the sun is higher in the sky, during the middle of the day, it creates harsher shadows and more contrast. This can lead to issues with overexposed images, or an unflattering image if you are working in portrait photography.
Related: The Quick and Dirty Guide to Setting Up a Blog ( How to Start a Blog TODAY!)
Where’s Your Light At?
Now that you know what time of day to shoot at let’s talk about where to shoot at. More importantly, in what direction you should be facing.
Do you think about where the sun is at when you are taking your pictures or do you point and shoot? One of the quickest ways to step up your photo game is to be mindful of where the light is in relation to your subject.
It is important to remember that the direction of light is named by the way in which it hits your subject rather than in relation to your camera.
Backlighting: This is when the light source (the sun in natural lighting) is directly in front of you, hitting your subject from behind. It can sometimes be difficult to find the correct exposure with backlighting.
Front lighting: This is when the light source is directly behind you, hitting your subject head-on. At times, it can cause exposure issues and wash out your subject.
Sidelighting: This is when the light source falls onto your subject from one side or another. This casts a longer shadow on one side This type of lighting creates the most dramatic effect when the sun is lower in the sky, casting long deep shadows.
Reflected Lighting: When light is reflected off one surface, such as water or glass, onto another it creates a soft effect. At times, it can also take on the color, texture, or pattern of the material it is reflecting off of.
Diffused Lighting: On days when the sun is hiding in the clouds the light can create a soft tone in images. This is called diffused light. This type of lighting generally has fewer shadows and contrast than days with brighter more visible sun.
Dramatic Lighting: If you are lucky, you can catch amazing skies when the timing is just right. These often occur before or after a storm. ( Do be careful, though!) These skies can provide for fantastic variations of tones, shadows, and contrast.
Twilight: Just after the sun goes down the lighting provides a rich blend of cool light tones.
Night: Night shots can be some of the most difficult for many photographers. While we don’t have the sun to work with at night, we have a variety of other light sources including streetlights, moonlight, and many others. Long exposures, which are the key to impressive night shots, give us the opportunity for a host of beautiful images.
Related: The 10 Best Places to Find Free High-Quality Stock Photography
What’s The Temperature?
Another important concept to understand when working with light and photography is light temperature. In essence, there are warm tones and cool tones. Warm tones tend to give your image deep red and orange hues. Cool tones will give your image beautiful blues and grays.
Knowing the optimal time of day and the right conditions for the light temperature that you want to work in will help you to target the mood that you want for your image. For example, if you want to do a dark, brooding image you would want to shoot during a time that offers cooler tones.
When working with portrait photography, warmer light temperatures are often preferred. However, your personal style will dictate this. One thing about photography and art, in general, is that rules are meant to be broken. Once you get a basic understanding of how to properly work in different light temperatures you can use this to create a variety of different styles and form your own signature look and feel for your images.
Light temperature is measured on the Kelvin scale. Kelvin is a unit of absolute temperature. It may seem a little opposite at first. Color temperatures over 5000K are considered cool colors ( these include blues, grays, and whites). Colors down around 3000K are considered warmer temperatures (these include yellows, oranges, and reds) Gray is considered neutral in the Kelvin scale. This is why many photographers use a gray card to calibrate their cameras before doing a shoot.
We will talk about color temperatures and how to properly calibrate your camera in a later tutorial. However, as this can be a tricky topic if you have any questions feel free to drop them in the comments!
Take Your Photography to the Next Level
Are you just starting out with photography? Perhaps you’ve been working with a camera for a while but want to up your game. What are you waiting for?
Coming in fall of 2018 we will be doing a weekly photography challenge and we invite you to join us! We will be holding it on the blog, on Facebook, and on Instagram so be sure to follow us there!
Grab a copy of our helpful photography lighting cheat sheet and mark your calendar! We can’t wait to see what you come up with for our challenges!
Do you want to be the first to know when we have a new tutorial on the blog? Join our mailing list today for blogging tutorials, fresh recipes, exclusive homeschool resources, and much more!
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
Thank you so much for this! Seriously, I need all the help I can get with my photography. I’m not the best at it, but I’m slowly learning.
Amber recently posted…What Are Your Valentine’s Day Plans?
Great tips here for anyone wanting to improve their photography. Plus, that is a great infographic.
Richard @ e-Courses.xyz recently posted…15 Awesome e-Course Platforms to Create and Sell your Course
Lighting is one of the biggest problems that I have when it comes to photography. I can never seem to get it right.
Omg, perfect timing! I just ordered myself a camera and will definitely reference back to this post to show off my new found skills. 🙂
xoxo
There really is nothing quite as effective as good lighting. I’m curious to see what other tips you’ll offer in the future!
Author Brandi Kennedy recently posted…Liebster Award 2017
I’m always looking for new tips on how to improve my photography for the blog and in life in general. Thanks!
This is a really great post. I definitely need help with my photography. In the winter, it’s tough to find good lighting for photos for my blog. I used to photograph my crafts on white foam board with another piece on the back for a completely white background. I’d go outside (not in direct sunlight) to get any decent light. My pictures always had a blue cast on the white areas. I guess that’s what you are talking about with light temperature. I’ve never heard of that before. Now I photograph on fake wood so that I don’t get weird whites. It would be even better if I just learned how to use my camera right! Thanks for the tips.
Heidi recently posted…Easy Classroom Door Idea for Spring
I have heard about the golden hour before, but there is so much more wonderful information in here about photography that I didn’t know! Thank you so much! Your description of the direction of light is so helpful!
Kristi Wheeler recently posted…How to Prep Your Garden For Spring – Spring Garden Prep – Free Printable Planting Notebook
LOVE LOVE golden hour pictures. Waiting for the weather to improve to shoot more!
Great tips! I think it’s important the we learn the basics if we’re planning to take photographs especially for our blogs. These are truly helpful.
OMG I so needed this. That is one of (the many) challenges I face with blogging. I mostly blog about food, so having good photography skills is a must. I need to make more of an effort to learn how to work a camera.
Miss Kim @ behgopa recently posted…Newport Beach Restaurant Week – Prix Fixe dinner at Canaletto Ristorante Veneto
Thank you for some of this tips about lighting. Seems like I attended a short seminar for Photography and so much more.
Nice tips. I love taking photos at sunrise, if I can motivate myself to get up early!!
This is a very timely post for me. I just got the Canon T6i last week, and am going through serious growing pains with it! I want it to be instantly as easy as my cell phone….I know that won’t happen, but it’s still driving me nuts! I do recipes and restaurant reviews. I’ve kind of gotten the hang of lighting and angles in my kitchen, but yesterday we went to a restaurant and I got SO frustrated because I couldn’t figure it out there. Thank you for these tips, and I’ll be following them for sure!
Karyl | Karyl’s Kulinary Krusade recently posted…Hoisin Pork and Rice Noodle Stir Fry
These are great tips for any photographer. I never seem to remember to find where the sun is at when I take pictures outdoors. This will be something I will work on now. Thank you.
Renee recently posted…Quote of the Day
Improving my photography is one of my main goals this year. This lighting info will definitely come in handy.
Danielle recently posted…Save & Earn Money on Dealspotr
Wow, thanks for this. My photography really needs help.
i love to work with sun light and then just edit it just a bit but the best hour for me is from 8 to 10
These are great tips. Since I have to take tons of photos at events, lighting can be my best and worst friend. Thank you for the advise; I’ll have to use some of these this weekend!
I dabble in photography as a hobby and have/is learning something everyday it seems. Lighting was a BIG thing for me. Once I learned about it, I got better. Still a work in progress though. Your tips are great advice for me to keep in mind!
There’s always room for improvement and these tips are really helpful! Lighting is the most difficult issue for me.
I was wondering what would be the one thing to improve my photography but lighting makes sense. I’m alway disappointed when bad light ruins my photos but happy when the conditions work perfect.
Wanderlust Vegans recently posted…Best Vegan Food of 2016
This is so cool! These tips are amazing and I will definitely use this. Great post 🙂
I have a lot of problems taking photos. I didn’t know about light and how it works. Thanks for sharing your article I learned and now have a better idea how to take photos.
There was a time in my life when I toyed with the idea of taking up photography. Now, I leave it to experts like yourself and when I do dabble in it, tips like yours help a lot.
Claudette recently posted…How To Master The Art of Waiting – Because It Is One
Great advice!!! I modeled for years and years and I can’t tell you how many of my days started in the middle of the night to be hair and makeup ready for sunrise. I hated waking that early but it was worth it for the amazing photos due to
Lighting.