6.6 LIGHT: ITS DIRECTION

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The direction that light is coming from relative to your camera’s position is important because it affects the shadows that will be visible in your picture. Four main types of lighting are illustrated here: front-lighting, side-lighting, backlighting, and top-lighting. Notice the position of the shadows in these photographs and how they affect the subjects.

The direction of light can affect your automatic exposure. Backlighting, for example, can leave your subject silhouetted against a background so bright that your automatic exposure system will assume the subject is much brighter than it actually is, and so underexpose the scene and make the subject even darker. This is fine, if you want a silhouette. If you don’t, you should use exposure compensation to lighten the image.

Side-lighting, light that falls mainly on one side of the subject, increases the sense of texture and volume because such cross-lighting casts shadows visible from the camera’s position that emphasize surface details. Landscape photographers often prefer to work early in the morning or late in the day because the sun low in the sky will sidelight scenes and add interesting surface textures.

Front-lighting, light that falls on the subject more or less from the camera’s position, decreases visible shadows and so minimizes surface details such as skin texture. Front-lighting also tends to minimize the apparent roundness or volume of the subject.

Backlighting, light that comes from behind the subject, puts the side of the subject that is facing the camera in shade. Automatic exposure tends to make backlit scenes too dark. You can add exposure to lighten the picture, especially those parts that are in shade.

Top-lighting, light that comes from more or less overhead, can occur outdoors at noon or indoors in public buildings or other places where ceiling lights predominate. If you are photographing a person, you will notice that top-lighting tends to cast shadows in eye-sockets and illuminate the top of the nose brightly. To avoid this effect, you might try moving the person into the shade.

Top-lighting, such as that found at midday, can selectively illuminate things, such as this flag in the guy’s back pocket, that would be in shadow with light coming from a lower angle.