Outdoor Photography Lighting Styles

When you're doing outdoor photography there are three basic lighting styles that you should be aware of, that you can use with different subjects, and in different circumstances. Those three styles are Front lighting, Side lighting, and Back lighting. The first basic style is front lighting and that occurs when the sun is behind you evenly illuminating your subject from the front. So if the sun's behind you, your subject's in front of you it'll have this nice even illumination, and front lighting is often preferred by wildlife photographers because you get this really even colorful light that brings out the detail on the animal. But it's not usually very good for landscape photography because you're getting a very flat light on the landscape. It's not revealing any texture of the landscapes. So the landscape doesn't look as three-dimensional as it might otherwise, and also it can be very difficult shooting landscape photography, especially if you're working with a wide angle lens with the sun behind you because you might get your shadow in the foreground. The second basic lighting style is side lighting, and that's where the sun is on the side of your subject. So part of the subject is in the light, the other part is in shadow. This may not be as useful for wildlife photography because there's an extreme contrast between the light and the shadow side of the animal. Though, in certain circumstances it can be very dramatic and powerful. Sidelining is often preferred for landscape photography because it reveals the texture in the landscape. It reveals landforms. It gives them depth. So it creates that illusion of three dimensions. So it can be very powerful for landscape photography. So the final lighting style is my personal favorite and that's back lighting. That's when you have the sun behind your subject, and when the sun is low and strong, let's say on a clear day when you don't have any clouds blocking the light. If you're working with a subject with translucent edges like an animal with fur or bird with feathers. You can get a really strong back light effect. But I also like using it for landscape. Once again, it's important to have a translucent subject. So if you're shooting something opaque like a field of boulders, back lighting isn't really going to help you that much. But if you have a subject with translucence, let's say a field of flowers instead of boulders or maybe if you're working in, for example a rainforest where you've got a moss all over the trees when the moss is back light it'll take on this beautiful glow you'll get that rim light effect around each and every one of the subjects in your landscape. And that'll help create three-dimensional relief, similar to when you're shooting side light, but everything will be glowing around its edges as if it's light from within. And this can be a very powerful, colorful and beautiful landscape photography effect.