Golden Hour LightLens FlareNight ShotMany people have the impression that lighting is complicated and technical, that it is important to calculate mathematic formulas and remember lighting ratios in their heads in order to get nice lighting.

Here are some quick, simple tips to keep in mind for outdoor lighting.

1. Sunlight is always best in the hour after sunrise and before sunset. Photographers commonly refer to these times as the ‘Golden Hours’. Before sunset, the light of the sun will gradually transition from yellow, to amber and finally to a reddish orange as it sets, and the opposite is repeated as it rises. The sun is also less bright and contrasts between light and dark are not as harsh. A normal shot can be magically transformed with the glow of Golden Hour sunlight.
2. Unless you are trying to achieve a certain effect, it is generally best to shoot away from the sun. The sun is the brightest source of light available, if you point your camera at the sun, the bright light can overpower your image and create lens flare. Shooting with the sun behind your subject also means that your subject will be in shadow.
3. Of course, there are times when you want to sun behind your subject. Let’s say you want to capture your subject in front of a beautiful sunset, your subject is in shadow and the sun is pointing directly into the camera, what do you do? Try the fill-flash setting. Fill-flash is designed to provide enough flash to fill in the shadow areas while allowing you to retain the exposure level for brighter areas, perfect for those sunset portraits.
4. When shooting in sunlight, be sure to watch for shadows. Shadows can create dark areas in the image and look unsightly. Most important, make sure your own shadow doesn’t appear in the image as well.
5. Did you know that the best night shots are taken just before sunrise and just after sunset? Shooting night shots at these times gives a lovely night-time sky, with just enough sunlight left to help illuminate the scene.

I hope you find these tips useful. Next time, I will focus on some simple flash techniques.

Bryon Paul McCartney

The ViewFinder Center for Photography