Have you ever been faced with a challenging lighting situation when photographing and you wished you had a better understanding of light to get the best out of it? Well, we've all been there. And that is why it is important to know light and its characteristics so you can create the best shots in every lighting condition.
Today's post is a collection of free eBooks to help you get better at the subject of lighting in photography. These guides cover different aspects of natural as well as artificial lighting, apart from discussions on certain specific topics around lighting. Be sure to check them out!
Creating mood with directional light from a window. Photo by Wendelin Jacober
(Note: If you'd like to gain a better understanding of light and learn how to best utilize light to create great shots consistently, check out Kent DuFault's guide to understanding light.)
This guide is a primer on the fundamentals of light and how you can control light to create remarkable shots. There's a section on light temperature that will help you understand the concept of white balance which leads to a detailed section on basic and advanced tools for light control when photographing.
Three-point lighting consists of three light sources – key light, fill light and back light. It is the foundation of most lighting setups used in photography today. The guide tells you the importance of three-point lighting, and how to effectively utilize it. There are shooting exercises too that will help you put to practice what you learn in the guide.
It can be a challenge to any photographer when it comes to dealing with mixed lighting- when two or more sources of light with different color temperatures affect the scene you're photographing. This guide discusses the different situations when this may occur using helpful examples and how you can respond to it in the best possible way.
Analyzing photographs can be a great way to learn what went into creating the photo – the lighting, composition, exposure settings, etc. This guide by photographer Karlo de Leon will teach you how to analyze a photo for the lighting elements that were utilized by identifying catchlights using examples from different genres like portraits, product, and food photography.
This guide is similar to #1 on this list in that it discusses the basics of light and its characteristics that you should understand as a photographer. It touches upon topics like light and shade, the color of light, and the softness and hardness of light. The guide ends with these words that I think we can all agree with – “Understand light and you understand photography.”
Get Better at Understanding Light
If you've struggled to take advantage of light in your photography to the fullest and you want a complete, in-depth training to help you with that, take a look at Photzy's best-selling guide Understanding Light, to produce great images by discovering the key concepts of light. Go here now to check it out.
About Author
Ritesh has been photographing since 2010 and his photographic interests have varied from nature and landscapes to street photography. You can see his photography on Flickr or on his website.
