Beginners Light Guide – What Are The Different Types Of Light In Photography ( and how to use them)?

Lighting is a vital component of photography. It’s important to understand the different lightings for different kinds of photography. The “right” lighting can be used to highlight certain aspects of the image, create dramatic effects, and even alter our perception of time. Now that you’ve mastered the Lighting Basics and know how light behaves. In this article we will explore the different types of photography lighting techniques: what they are, how to create them, and when best used.

To understand the basic lighting for photography you need to consider the following:

• Light sources (is it ambient light, accent lighting or task lighting)
• The direction of the light
• Type of lighting

Frontal Light aka flat light

What is flat light (Frontal)? 

Flat light is the kind of lighting that comes from directly in front of a subject (on or behind the camera) with no variation. This has very little drama and typically requires additional lights to make it interesting. It’s mostly used for everyday photography, such as portraits or product shots, where drama isn’t necessary or desired.

How do you create flat light?

The key to creating natural flat light, is that it needs to be a large soft diffused light. Open shade works great outdoors. While natural indoor flat light is best found by a window with indirect light. So, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, your north facing windows are perfect and if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, use your south facing windows.Flash flat light photography is another way to achieve this, but it’s not as natural looking because you’re limited by the flash duration and power settings. You might not be looking for a deer in headlights look.

When should I use flat lighting?

Flat light can be useful when photographing products without distracting backgrounds and clear lines such as jewellery, watches, or sheets of paper: anything where being able to accurately measure shadows is essential. Keep in mind however that this type of photography lighting does lack depth so will work best if you have pieces like these against a plain background. It can also be used for portraiture when you want to avoid any features that might otherwise be emphasised by other types of lighting, like wrinkles and blemishes.

When not to use front lighting?

The unfortunate downside to flat lighting is that it can cause the subject’s skin tone to appear unnatural when shooting close-ups. Front lighting lacks drama from any shadows, making it boring for subjects with a lot of texture, like mature portraits or food.Remember, if its a bright natural front light, it’s going to be difficult for your subject not to squint, so use a diffuser to block the harsh light and will create a nice softer light ideal for portraits.

Rim Lighting & Back Lighting Photography examples

What is back lighting?

Backlight photography is when the light source comes from behind your subject.

How to use back lighting?

It’s best for subjects that want to showcase a product, like jewellery or books, by create a rim light around the product. You can also use this technique when the subject has an interesting silhouette and you want to capture it in all its glory.If you want to use back lighting for outdoor family photoshoots, then it’s best to ignore the sky, expose for your subjects skin tones and do it during golden hour. With the sun so low in the sky, it’s much easier to create a rim halo effect or even sun flares.

Exposure tips for back lighting:

• Use a reflector as a fill light or to create catchlights.
• To make sure your subject is exposed properly, use spot metering, alternatively, use exposure compensation set to +1EV.

When not to use back lighting?

The problem with back-lit subjects is balancing the exposure correctly . If you have too much light to light the subject, then the background will be overexposed. If you expose for the scene then the subject will be under exposed. Making backlight landscapes problematic.

Side Lighting

What is side lighting?

Side light photography refers to shots where the light source comes from either behind or beside the photographer (rather than directly in front), creating shadows on just one side of the face which leads to more dramatic effects overall. Side-lit | Split portraits are a great way to showcase your subject’s facial features.Soft Side lighting has a low contrast: the shadows are soft and less intense than those created by backlighting or front-lit photography, which can lead to more flattering portraits with smoother skin tones as well as richer colours overall in landscape shots.

How to use side light?

Creating side-lit photography is easier than you might think. Simply position your light source either to the left or right of (but opposite) from where you want the subject, then shoot straight on; for example: a lamp positioned behind and off camera to one side would create perfect lighting conditions.

Lighting Conditions When Best Used:

Side Light photography works best in settings with some form of directional natural light, which means it can be used at any time during sunrise/sunset as well as sunset/sunrise when shooting landscapes outdoors – also great for indoor shots taken near windows that lead outwards into nature. However, due to its softer qualities and tendency towards flattering skin tones, most professional portrait photographers tend to use Soft Side Lighting techniques.

Fill Lighting

What is a fill light?

A Fill Light is the term used for any method that employs a light source to fill in or illuminate shadows. A common technique for side lighting, it can be applied using a single off-camera flash unit or by reflecting more ambient natural light back into the frame with mirrors/reflectors.

How to use a fill light?

-Place your subject between the fill light and the camera.-Aim a flash or other light source (reflector) at an angle towards the back of their head, so as to hit them from behind with soft frontal lighting, while still illuminating any shadows cast in front. This will provide more natural looking illumination on the face than using side lighting alone would have done – especially if you’re shooting indoors with few windows for direct sunlight into these areas.

When is fill lighting best used?

A Fill Light can be applied anytime during sunrise/sunset when shooting outdoors, but due to its softer qualities and tendency towards flattering skin tones, most professional portrait photographers tend to use Soft Side Lighting techniques; instead opting for Harder Types of Lighting

Portrait lighting techniques

There are many different types of portrait lighting techniques, with each one being best suited for a specific type of photo. The key is to know what effect you’re after and which direction your light should be coming from in order to get it!

Rembrandt Lighting

Rembrandt Lighting is a type of side lighting; best used for dramatic portraits with the light coming from a higher angle and on the side of their face (about 4 o’clock), creating shadows that help to define facial features, while the triangular light on the check draws the viewer in.

Butterfly Lighting

Butterfly Light is a type of high frontal lighting used to create a small butterfly like shadow under the nose. This type of light is best used for casual portraits with a softer, more natural feel to them while slimming down the subject’s features.

Loop Lighting

Loop Lighting is a side/backlighting technique the light comes from around 12 o’clock and goes upward, then downward to create a “loop” of light. This is best for product photography or anything else that you want to draw attention away from the person (or people) in the photo. This directional light produces natural looking highlights and warm glow on skin tones without any distracting shadows under the chin.

Key Lighting

Key Lighting can be one directional, but it also works with multiple lights coming at different angles on either side of the subject, so they are well-lit no matter what angle they’re viewed at. Key lighting is best used when there’s more than one person in your photograph because it allows their features to stand out against each other as opposed to blending together into an indistinguishable face blob!

Short Lighting

Short Light is when the light comes from behind and illuminates just one side of a person’s face. The side furthest from the camera. The prominent shadows create a dark and moody feel, but also help slim out a fuller face.

Board Light

Board light is a type of photography lighting technique in which the light comes from wide light source, but is angled down onto just one side of your head.

Choosing the Best Type of Lighting for Your Photographs

When it comes to choosing the best type of lighting, it really comes down to what you’re trying to do. Are you shooting a portrait? Do you want something moody and dramatic, or are looking for flattering light that will make your subject stand out against the background? Once you work out what you want, you can then pick the best type of light to match your goal.