Cambridge in Colour A Learning Community for Photographers

Home
Tools
Tutorials
Concepts & Terminology
Using Camera Equipment
Editing & Post-Processing
Color Management & Printing
Photo Techniques & Styles
all photography tutorials
Forums
Get Updates
enter your email here

Submit

search

NATURAL LIGHT IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Paying more attention to light is perhaps the single most important step you
can take to improve your photography. With many landscapes, having good
natural lighting can even be more important than the choice of subject itself.
Dierent types of natural light can also produce a wide variety of subject
appearances even though these all have the same light source. Learn how
to achieve the right light for your subject by utilizing the unique qualities of
your particular time of day and weather.

Flat Natural Light

Better Natural Light

Three factors inuence how natural light renders a subject: time of day,
camera direction and weather. We'll rst explore time of day under clear
skies, then move onto specic weather conditions; lighting directions will be
saved for a future tutorial.

OVERVIEW
Even though all natural light originates from the sun, a subject's illumination
is actually comprised of several components:
Direct Sunlight
(warmer, high
contrast)

Diuse Skylight
(cooler, low
contrast)

Bounced Light
(has qualities of reecting
object)

Move your mouse over each lighting component above to isolate its eect.
Depending on the time of day, the relative amount of each component
changes resulting in an overall illumination with a dierent white balance
or contrast. We'll start with astronomical high noon (when the sun is at its
highest), then see what happens as the day progresses to sunset (or
reverses to sunrise).

Time of Day

Contrast

Colors

Direction of Sun

1. Midday

Highest Neutral White Near Vertical

2. Evening & Morning

High

Slightly Warm Mid to Low

3. Golden Hour & Sunrise/Sunset Medium Warm to Fiery Near Horizontal

4. Twilight, Dawn & Dusk

Low

Cool Pastel

Below Horizon

note: the contrast characteristics are intended only for clear skies
Time of Day. Further from high noon, the sun dips closer to the horizon. This
results in lower contrast, because sunlight has to pass through more
atmosphere, and more easily bounces o the ground toward the subject. In
addition, the atmosphere selectively lters more of the sun's blue light
resulting in warmer light overall.
Weather. Along with time of day, the type and extent of cloud cover is the
other most inuential cause of lighting variation. It primarily inuences
lighting because it changes the balance between direct sunlight and diuse
skylight, which in turn aects the apparent contrast and color temperature of
the light source. We'll discuss this more at the end.

CLEAR MIDDAY SUNSHINE

Midday lighting is primarily comprised of direct, downward sunlight. Such

light has little chance to scatter and diuse through the atmosphere, or to
bounce o the ground and illuminate the subject indirectly. This results in the
hardest and most neutrally-colored lighting of any time of day, and is
typically the least desirable type of natural light.
Due to these drawbacks, too often photographers put their camera away
potentially missing unique opportunities. For example, water may appear
more transparent, since light penetrates deeper and direct reections o the
surface are less likely. Alternatively, other types of photographs are more
about capturing a particular event, as opposed to achieving an image with
optimal lighting.

Overcoming Unique Challenges. Just be aware that color saturation is

typically lower, and that downward shadows generally don't produce
attering portraits, or make other subjects appear as three-dimensional.
Many photographers encourage liberal use of polarizing lters to manage
contrast, since this is often when they're most impactful, but at this time
these can also more easily make the sky appear unnaturally dark and blue. If
shadows appear too harsh and colors aren't suciently saturated, try
converting to black and white, since these may even benet from the high
contrast of midday light.

EVENING & MID-MORNING

Evening and mid-morning light becomes slightly warmer, and begins to cast
noticeable shadows. Since direct light now originates from an upper side,
subjects often appear much more three dimensional. Such lighting is usually
much more predictable than sunsets and sunrises, primarily because this
time is less dependent on the eect of surrounding mountains, or the
location of the cloud line.

Overcoming Unique Challenges. Mid-evening and morning has perhaps the

most compromised lighting: it's not as neutrally colored as during midday,
but also not as warm or intense as a sunset. It's also less harsh and
originates from a better angle than during midday, but also isn't as soft and
diuse as during twilight or overcast lighting. These qualities make it a good
all-around time of day for photography, but also run the risk of making
photos appear too ordinary, since one cannot use any uniquely exaggerated
lighting traits to emphasize particular features in their subject.

GOLDEN HOUR & SUNRISE/SUNSET

The hour just before sunset and just after sunrise (the "golden hour") is
typically regarded as having the most desirable light for photography. This is
characterized by horizontal light that casts long shadows and gives subjects
a warm glow.

Sunsets and sunrises make for exciting and highly varied lighting, primarily
because these are heavily inuence by subtleties in the weather. Clouds are
rendered using sunlight which reects o them from underneath as
opposed to sunlight which has diused through them from above
potentially causing the sky to light up with a soft, warm light.

Overcoming Unique Challenges. Sunsets and sunrises are often

spectacularly vibrant in person, but this isn't always translated well into an
image. Make sure that your camera's auto white balance doesn't counteract
an otherwise warm-looking scene, or that the color saturation isn't overly
conservative to minimize the risk of color clipping. Ironically, when the
lighting is most dramatic is also when your camera is most likely to make an
error with its exposure; try to take several photos, or use partial or spot

metering just in case.

Sunrise vs. Sunset. Although sunsets and sunrises are in theory identical,
weather patterns can cause these to be consistently dierent, so many
photographers prefer one over the other. Some nd that they're more
prepared to photograph during sunset over sunrise, because light quality
builds steadily prior to a sunset whereas with sunrises, the light often
starts at its best and gradually fades. In addition, being awake and
on-location for a sunrise is often impractical in the summer months. On the
other hand, sunrise photography is usually void of potentially distracting
crowds, and more often has a low-laying mist and dew on foliage. Sunrises
often also have a calm, quiescent quality particularly with scenes involving
water that isn't present during sunsets.

TWILIGHT, DAWN & DUSK

Twilight, dawn and dusk typically describe the half hour before sunrise or
after sunset when the sky is still bright but there's no longer any direct
sunlight. The primary source of light eectively becomes the entire sky, with
one side appearing warm and reddish and the other becoming a cool blue or
purple. This can produce wonderfully soft, multicolored lighting that gives a
calm, peaceful mood to subjects.

Overcoming Unique Challenges. Perhaps the biggest disadvantages are the

lack of contrast and ambient light. Hand-held shots are therefore rarely
possible, and achieving a sucient sense of depth may require more
attention to composition. Cameras also often over-expose twilight scenes
when using automatic exposures potentially washing out the otherwise
delicate colors since twilight almost never contains any fully white objects.
Alpenglow. If you're lucky, a phenomenon called "alpenglow" may appear as
a red or pinkish glow in the sky furthest from the setting sun, but it's never a
guarantee. Alpenglow can be a helpful eect for extending a sky's warmth
well beyond sunset.

SHADE & OVERCAST SUNLIGHT

Shade and overcast light typically have a cool, soft appearance, since the
source of such light is spread across the entire sky, and doesn't include any
direct sunlight. Textures therefore appear much subtler, and reections on
smooth surfaces are more diuse and subdued. The color of such light is also
more heavily inuenced by bounced light from nearby objects, so subjects
shaded by foliage can even incur a greenish tint.
Many photographers shy away from this type of lighting, but doing so is often
a mistake. For example, depending on the degree of cloud cover, bright
overcast light can actually be ideal for outdoor portraits and wildlife (as long
as the cool white balance is corrected), since it doesn't cast harsh shadows
across the subject's face. Bright overcast light may also enhance close-up

photography, such as with owers, since the appearance and saturation of

colors usually improve. Alternatively, low contrast light can also be better
when the subject itself is high in contrast, such as subjects containing both
dark and light colors.

Overcoming Unique Challenges. A common trick is to keep the gray sky out
of the photo unless the clouds are particularly moody and highly textured.
Since shadows play much less of a role, achieving a sucient sense of depth
may be dicult just as during twilight but this time one also doesn't
have the appealing pastel lighting to compensate. Images straight out of the
camera often appear more bluish than desired, so shooting in RAW and
adjusting the white balance afterwards is also encouraged. Liberal use of the
levels tool and curves tool may also be helpful if one wishes to use the full
contrast range in a print.

OTHER SPECIFIC WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather is eectively just a massive lter that lies between the sun and your
subject. At one extreme, light could be relatively warm and highly localized,
such as sunlight from a clear sky. At the other extreme, light could be cooler
and envelop the subject, such as diuse sunlight through a densely overcast
sky. The thickness and extent of cloud cover is what decides where in this
continuum your particular weather will have its eect.

When the sky is partly cloudy, one can eectively use the sky to paint their
scene with light if one is willing to wait for just the right moment. This is
an excellent and often overlooked opportunity, especially during the middle
of the day.
Alternatively, stormy weather can produce extremely high contrast light since
rain clears the air of haze and dust. Sunsets after a storm are also often the
most dramatic, in part because the sky can become much darker than the
land providing a nice high contrast backdrop for front-lit subjects. This is
also when rainbows are most likely to appear.

Evening Light During Stormy Skies

Selective Light from Partly Cloudy Skies

Other scenarios include photography in the fog, mist or haze. This not only
greatly decreases light's contrast just as during an overcast day but
also does so progressively for more distant objects.

FURTHER READING
We also have an online tool which will automatically calculate your times and
direction:
Sunrise, Sunset & Twilight Calculator for Photography
For similar topics, also visit the following tutorials:
Understanding White Balance
Discusses the types and terminology of light's color temperature.
Introduction to Portrait Lighting: One Light Source
Understand how light inuences the appearance of a portrait.
Photography in Fog, Mist or Haze
Learn how these unique weather conditions inuence lighting.
Common Obstacles in Night Photography

An introduction to some of the challenging technical hurdles.

Want to learn more? Discuss this and other articles in our digital
photography forums.

- Back to Photography Tutorials Follow us via

Email
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Google+

BROWSE CATEGORIES
Concepts & Terminology
Using Camera Equipment
Editing & Post-Processing
Color Management & Printing
Photo Techniques & Styles

Copyright 2016 Cambridge in Colour|Gallery|About|Contact Us

Email
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Google+