Great Photos In Poor Light

Cover Photo Credit @nikicram , model: @cole.gill , agency: @bellaagencyla

While strobe lights are your loyal friends and will always serve you well as long as there is electricity around, working with the sunlight on the other hand only might be difficult. Firstly, the best lighting condition usually lasts only for couple of hours. Secondly, a big portion of the sun light time is a dull, uninspiring period with the Sun either right above you or hidden behind buildings. Here are few tips that you might apply to capture the best quality images while working outside with natural light.

 Colors

What is so special about the sunlight and sunset and sunrise times? It brings the color to the picture. With the golden hour light everything starts looking with saturated hues.

When skies are overcast, though, natural lighting doesn’t offer the hues necessary for a richly-colored photograph. Instead, to create a colorful image, you must search or create a vivid subject.

In dim lighting condition your light will  be soft and gentle. Take this opportunity to look  or use muted colors that would not be visible in the saturated light of sunset. Colors of  soft purple and blue shade would work great!

Focus

Another idea to implement when shooting in overcast light is to try out a macro photography.

Since dim skies are great at providing soft shadows, it brings out more color and tone play in small objects.

The colors of macro scenes are naturally more saturated than distant scenes, since there is little atmospheric haze between your lens and your subject. Take advantage of this fact by searching for vivid objects to photograph — the macro world is full of color.

If you are shooting in the rain, try capturing its beautiful geometric shapes of the droplets on subject/models face and hair.

Go Black and White

When it is impossible to bring out any vivid color in your photos, switch to black and white photography. The beauty of working with black and white is it creates a surreal contrast impossible to witness in the real world. Most of the times, the black and white photos, if turned into a colored photo, will not have as much depth and the eye-catch moment as black and white would.

When the sky is overcast and boring, switching to black and white will pull the sky towards far right frequencies and the rest of the picture will stand out on the contrast.

Shooting At Mid-Day

All aforementioned techniques are useful at the time of dim light and overcast skies. But what about the mid day dead centered sun  when shadows are harsh and dull?

In this situation, one of the tricks is to look  for the shadow play in a detail oriented environment. Subjects with patterns would create interesting geometric lines and intersections that might be interesting to the viewer’s eye.