Naturalvs.Artificial Light.
There are two sources of light: natural (which includes sunlight, moonlight,
and reflected light from either the sun or moon), and artificial (which in-
cludes sources like tungsten lights, fluorescent lights, electronic flash, and
studio flash). Natural light is not limited to the outdoors, nor is artificial light
exclusively indoors. Many times, I use flash to fill in shadows while shooting
outdoors. I have also effectively used filtered window light for an indoor shot
with natural light.
As you’ll see in the following sections, sunlight is a great option for pho-
tography. It’s natural, often very flattering to your subjects, and widely abun-
dant (and you can’t beat the price!). However, it does present certain
challenges when it comes to control—and, unless you can shoot near a win-
dow, it’s not always an option for images shot indoors. In many cases, you’ll
also find that you need more precise control than you can easily exercise over
natural light. That is why photographers also need to be adept at creating ef-
fective lighting setups using artificial light sources.
As a photographer, both of these forms of light are at your disposal. It’s up
to you to learn how to use them effectively in all their many incarnations.Sunlight.
Generally, the average photographer is most concerned with daylight. But
saying “daylight” is just the beginning of the story—there are countless vari-
ations of just this one light source.
Bright Sunlight.There are several problems inherent in working with
bright sunlight. These problems intensify when shooting against a brightly
lit background such as a light-colored wall, a beach, or snow. In these cases,
the overall light tones in the image can trick the in-camera meter and lead to
incorrect exposures. When shooting against a predominately dark back-
ground, you may find that your film or image sensor can’t handle the very
high contrast of the scene—you’ll either have blown-out highlights (white
with no detail) or blocked up shadows (black with no detail). Fortunately,
with a digital camera, it is easy to shoot a few images and then preview them.
Working in the manual mode (for total control), pay attention to the expo-
suresettingsasyouareshooting,reviewyourresults,thenadjusttheaperture,
TYPES OF LIGHT SOURCES 554. Types of Light Sources.
Natural light is not
limited to the outdoors,
nor is artificial light
exclusively indoors.