Who Turn Out the Lights

I have learned so much about photography since my early days of photographing my wife. No, don't even ask. I used to think I had all the answers. Just pick myself up the latest and greatest camera and I was off to the races. Then I couldn't understand why my photos looked like garbage. Well, I quickly learned that it's all about lighting. I don't care how great your camera is. If you don't have sufficient lighting, your photos are only going to be so good. This article is going to give you some personal tips that I've picked up over the years that have greatly helped me make the most of my digital photos.

For starters, the time of day when you take your photos greatly matters. There is a huge difference between natural sunlight and the light that comes from your halogen lamps or whatever source it is that you're using. For example, I can take a photo inside my living room, with absolutely no lights on at all, just the window shades wide open, and end up with crystal clear photos. This will be true with the cheapest digital camera all the way to the most expensive top of the line model. As a matter of fact, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two as long as the megapixels of each are about the same. Natural daylight does wonders for your photos.

Okay, but what if you're taking photos at night? Well, then you're going to have to depend on good lighting. The flash of your digital camera, especially if it's a built in flash, is only going to do so much. Many times, with poor lighting, you'll end up with photos that are either very dark or grainy or both. This is what used to drive me crazy with my early photos. What I have found is that halogen lights are great if you simply want photos that are bright and crystal clear. If they're white halogen, don't expect very soft or colorful photos as the white light kind of washes them out. But they will be bright and clear. Just make sure the light is focused on the subject from the side. Either side will be fine. Anything but directly behind as the light will end up in the line of site of the photo. You don't want that.

If you want softer photos, you need different color lights. There's a resource in my signature that goes into all that stuff. You can read my review of it at my blog.

I never used to like taking photos. But these days, taking great looking photos is a breeze.