Lighting How To

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.

All artists must learn to harness the power of light in order to create successful images. Author, and noted photography educator, Rosanne Olson’s new book ABCs of Beautiful Light: A Complete Course in Lighting for Photographers offers readers an in-depth study on the use of proper lighting techniques for photography, videography—and art in general.

“Photography is all about light, composition and, most importantly, emotion.”—Larry Wilder