MCP Giveaway

Hey, there is an awesome giveaway over at MCP's blog.   I love their actions, giveaways, and their fun Project 52 that I am involved in.  This is their 1000th post so they are celebrating the wealth of information that they have shared with us!! I always learn a lot reading their articles.
I always appreciate lighting articles, because as photographers we know how important good lighting is to getting a good picture, so here is one of my favorites about shooting in natural light:

The 4 Best Types of Natural Light for Your Photography

I’m very particular about light. If my shooting conditions aren’t open shade, overcast, or back light,….I don’t shoot. However, as a photographer I’m always trying to learn new things and grow creatively as well as technically. It’s good to get out of your comfort zone at times and try shooting in all kinds of lighting conditions, like high noon, subject facing the sun, and mixed lighting. Playing with light is not always something you can afford to do when you have a paying client who is depending on your photos. I’ll save the light experiments for my own personal “fun” shoots! That way I can go out and discover and learn more about light and work in more complex lighting situations. As I get more comfortable, I can incorporate some of my new found knowledge into my shoots with clients.
Here are some of my favorite lighting conditions to shoot in.
OPEN SHADE: Shooting in open shade seems to be the safest lighting situation. I notice my exposures come out really spot on and the over all lighting is very even and nice. Sometimes we are stuck shooting at times of day when the lighting is strong and shooting conditions are not ideal (like at high noon). Your best chance for getting decent photos in this type of lighting is to find a nice piece of open shade. You will yield much better results then if you just take all of your photos out in the strong sun where you are more likely to get really harsh shadows and blow out the highlights. Try location scouting for various places that have nice open shade and make a list of them. That way depending on when your photo shoot takes place, you will always be able to have reliable locations with some nice open shade!

OVERCAST: What can I say, I delight in overcast days! It’s natures huge diffuser! Your entire environment becomes open shade and now you can dash out and shoot at any location, facing any direction. Many of the locations I love face west. Unfortunately it places the sun in my subjects face and therefore causes squinting and is not ideal. However, on an overcast day I can get out and shoot all of my favorite spots because open shade is everywhere. Also I find on an overcast day that my colors seem richer and deeper strait out of camera. Because overcast pictures tend to have a cooler tone to them, I will often warm up the photo in post processing.

BACK LIGHT: Shooting back light is so much fun, yet does not always produce desirable results. Shooting back lit subjects can often throw your cameras meter way off. It’s best to get close to your subject and meter off their face in the spot metering mode. Adjust your settings and then step back, focus, and take the shot. Sometimes it looks nice to have a little sun haze or lens flare on a photograph, but often when shooting back light it’s easy to get to much of a good thing. So you may have to reposition your subject or yourself just a bit so your photos don’t let too much haze into the photo. When done right, back lit pictures can be some of my favorites!

AFTER SUNDOWN: Have I mentioned my new favorite time of day to shoot? Ya, it’s after the sun is completely down. The ambient light that is still around is unbelievable. Fist off you have complete open shade everywhere, the subject can face any direction now without the sun blaring in their face, and the exposures are to die for amazing! If you have a camera that let’s you boost your ISO settings up, and a fast lens that opens up, you can get away with shooting after then sun is totally down for 30 minutes or longer. Give it a try!

I always notice light. I love to just observe the way light touches everything, the way it falls all around us, and then look for those juicy pockets of light to work in! Watch light, pay attention to what it does through out the day and make plans for finding the best light for your photo shoots!
Andee Tate of Crave Photography is based out of Utah and specializes in Weddings, portrait work, and photoshop mentoring.