Lighting How To

Camera technology these days is amazing; it’s practically magic. The problem, though, to my way of thinking and photographing, is that the magic offers a very wide and deep comfort zone—you might call it a zone of automatic decisions, and it’s probably best not to spend a lot of time there, certainly not if you want to create individualistic images.

There are two main reasons that some photographers hesitate to give indoor boudoir photography a try, one being the misconception that complicated (and expensive) lighting equipment is required.

Nighttime offers a variety opportunities for capturing eye-catching images, whether you're shooting cityscapes, on the water, or elsewhere outdoors. That's because scenes that look boring during the day are often transformed into sparkling tableaus once the sun drops below the horizon and the lights come on.

Whether you’re shooting landscapes, street photos, or cityscapes, something magical happens when the sun dips below the horizon. Colorful lights abound, and less appealing components of a scene tend to fade into obscurity.

Beautiful lighting, in many ways, is what photography is all about. And as our readers proved with this month’s submissions, if you want great lighting, all you need to do is look outside your window. While it’s not entirely surprising, our 10 favorite photos from this month’s assignment are all bathed in natural light. The results are simply radiant.

The first thing most of us think of when we hear the words “Zone System” is the great Ansel Adams, who developed this powerful exposure technique with Fred Archer over 80 years ago. The second thing that often comes to mind is the word “complicated.”

Many photographers shoot exclusively with available light because they’re intimidated by what they fear are the complexities of using supplemental light sources. And while complicated studio setups can require specialized expertise, shooting with simple speedlights or small studio strobes is actually quite simple.