Looking For Light

Note: This article, originally published back in September of last year is still helpful with trying to find interesting lighting for photographs. I publish articles like this often. 

Looking For Light

by William Lulow

Many of my students have heard me say many times, that if you learn studio lighting, you will never again look at a photograph or a scene, for that matter, without noticing the lighting. So, when I’m out with my camera looking for things to photograph, or if I’m traveling anywhere, I’m always aware of the light. I’m really trying to find examples of my studio lightings that I have used often as they occur in nature. Once you are aware of what artificial light can do, it will definitely help you to make more impactful images. Because it is often just the lighting that creates a sense of awe in photographs.

So, here are just a couple of the STUDIO LIGHTINGS that I teach regularly in my classes:

And here are some samples of these lightings that can be found in nature:

One example of this is the EDGE LIGHT. This lighting gives a subject some highlight that makes the image more interesting. Look for the shadows to tell you from which direction the light is coming:

A bit of EDGE LIGHT on the Red Mill in Clinton, NJ. Or a SIDE LIGHT on some buildings in New York: 

Everywhere you look, you see light. Light is what makes our world visible! So knowing what you’re looking AT can help you more readily to see what you’re looking FOR! 

Here are some more examples:

EDGE LIGHT on some buoys in Maine. 

BACKLIGHT from a sunrise in Sarasota, Florida:

Here’s a SILHOUETTE LIGHT created in the studio, and one found in a park. The definition of this lighting is when the background is lit and the subject is not.

This is an example of sunlight diffused by heavy cloud cover:

Here, an image made with a kind of HOLLYWOOD LIGHT which is basically a light from the camera position, but high up:

As we know, light is necessary for life itself, but how light affects us as human viewers, is of equal importance. The lighting in a picture can be scary:

It can be mysterious:

And it can be thought-provoking,

as well as entertaining.

Photographers use light in different ways to convey different human emotions. Again, when you know what the light is and how to create it, you are much better equipped to recognize it when you see it. That’s what “looking for light” is all about. As image makers, we need to be aware of all types of lighting conditions so that we can reproduce them at will in the studio as well as take advantage of them as the occur naturally. 

I have detailed some studio lighting samples that occur regularly in nature like the BACKLIGHT. Here is an example of it that I used in a studio shot:

This light was set up purposely behind the subjects to produce a reflection on a shiny surface as well as allow some light to shine through the subjects themselves. 

So, again, learning what the classical studio lightings are called and how to set them up will teach you how to look for them as they occur naturally. It will also give you the ability to look for these types of lightings anywhere. 

This image was made with another, strong backlight. The highlights are part of what gives the photograph it’s strength:

Here’s another perfect example of “Looking For Light.” A box of strawberries with a strong backlight producing some nice highlights. (Made with my iPhone 13 Max Pro):

This was just a grab shot of some light that I saw reflected here. I was thinking of using it as an illustration for this article only. If I was trying to get a really good photograph, I would have probably used my DSLR, stopped the lens down to get greater depth-of-field and most likely, would have had to use a greater ISO as well. 

So when we are out and about with our cameras, we need to be aware of what kind of light we are seeing and how it makes us think about the scenes we are encountering. This often helps us make more thought-provoking and stronger images.

Remember, anything light in an image tends to stand out. Anything dark tends to recede. So highlights can be very useful in communicating an “upbeat” kind of picture. 

Light, as we know, is all around us, produced by the sun in our universe. It’s roughly 93 million miles away from Earth but still produces all kinds of effects, as we have seen here. As photographers, we need to recognize what it does, the moods it evokes and how to try to reproduce these various kinds of lightings in the studio to help us produce images that can do the various jobs we choose.