Lighting How To

When most of us got started in photography we were told to “always shoot with the sun at your back.” That advice was reasonable for beginners interested in capturing simple images with a “Kodak Moment” look.

We've all come upon a beautiful scene only to discover that our images look flat and lifeless. Sometimes that's because the light wasn't quite right, while other times the culprit was operator failure, i.e. we used the wrong camera settings or techniques.

There are a number of reasons that landscape and other outdoor photos may be underexposed. Perhaps you neglected to add the necessary EV compensation, or an overly bright sky biased the exposure.

If you’ve ever shot portraits in front of a seamless white background or a cyclorama, you’ve probably had to deal with pesky background shadows. They’re fine if you’re going for a dramatic look in your portraits, but what if you wanted something cleaner as your background to draw attention to your subject?

Beginner portrait photographers should check out the below tutorial from Bach Photography.  Titled "How to Instantly Improve Your Natural Light Portrait Photography," it's a great starting point for anyone wanting to shoot beautiful portraits using only natural light.

The fun video below from The Slanted Lens -- with support from Tamron, Dynalite, and Roscoe—features host Jay P. Morgan and actress Jodie Sweetin of Full House fame, as they set up for a crazy photo shoot.

Photography gear is great, but photography gear can be expensive and it’s always so much more fun and cheap when you can make it yourself. In the below video from COOPH, they teach you how to do just that.