TechniqueLesson 5 of 8 · 20 min · 5 reading, 15 doing
The short version
Before you press, check where the light is coming from. If the bright light is behind your subject, move: turn yourself or your subject until the light falls on the side that faces you.
This lesson costs nothing and needs no settings. It's simply a habit: before each photo, ask where the light is.
Why your eyes and the camera disagree
Your eyes adjust constantly. Look at a friend standing in front of a bright window and you see their face and the view outside at the same time. A camera can't hold that much difference in one frame. It has to choose: a well-exposed face with a blank white window, or a well-exposed window with a dark face.
Auto usually measures the whole frame, and the big bright area wins. You get the view, and your friend becomes a dark shape. That's why so many holiday photos have people as silhouettes against a beautiful sky.
Three directions of light
Wherever you are, light reaches your subject from one of three broad directions, relative to where you stand:
Light comes from
Where the light is
What you get
Front light
Behind you, falling on the front of your subject
Bright, clear colours, easy for Auto. Can look flat; people may squint.
Side light
To one side of you and your subject
Shape and texture: one side lit, one in shadow. Often the most interesting.
Back light
Behind your subject, facing you
Silhouettes or a glowing outline. Hard for Auto; faces go dark.
None of these is wrong. Back light can be beautiful. The point is to choose it, instead of discovering it when you look at the photo later.
Light falling on the face: clear skin tones and detail.
Side light from a window: one side lit, one in shadow, so the face has shape.
Back light: the sun is behind the subject, so she becomes a dark shape.
Fix it in three moves
Turn around. Swap places with your subject, or walk round them, until the light is behind you or to one side.
Turn the subject. If the background matters, keep your spot and ask your subject to turn their face towards the light. For an object, rotate it.
If you can't move, use ±. Add +1 to +2 (Lesson 4) to brighten the face. The bright background will turn white; that's the trade.
Or go the other way on purpose: keep the back light and turn ± to −1 for a clean, dark silhouette against the sky.
Indoors: the window is your light
In a room, the window is usually the brightest light by far. The same rules apply. Put the window beside your subject for side light, or behind you for front light. Avoid putting your subject between you and the window unless you want a silhouette. Turn off the ceiling light if it's casting yellow patches; Module 14 explains why mixed light looks odd.
Window behind the subject: the camera exposes for the bright window and the face goes dark.
Turned so the window light reaches her face: it stays soft and keeps its detail.
Where the sun will be
The sun rises roughly in the east and sets roughly in the west. In the middle of the day, outside the tropics, it sits to the north if you're in the southern hemisphere and to the south if you're in the northern. Early and late in the day it's low, so it lights faces from the side and front. Around midday it's high overhead, which puts shadows in eye sockets. Module 4 covers the quality of light in detail.
Watch out for
Your own shadow in the frame when the sun is low behind you. Step to one side, or turn so the sun is over your shoulder.
People squinting into bright sun. Turn them so the sun is to the side, or move them into open shade, such as the shady side of a building.
Reaching for the flash first. Turning around is quicker and looks more natural.
Quick checkYour friend stands with the sunset behind them. In Auto, the sky looks lovely and their face is black. Name two ways to fix it.
Swap places so the light falls on their face, or stay put and add +1 to +2 with ± so the face brightens (the sky will get lighter too). A third choice: keep it as a silhouette on purpose.
Tip
Before you shoot something that can't move, like a statue or a building, walk all the way round it once. Notice which side looks best in this light. Often it isn't the side you arrived on.
Try it now · 15 minutes
Put a mug, toy or plant on a table near a window. Set P, ± at 0.
Photograph it from three spots: with the window behind you, beside you, and behind the object.
For the window-behind shot, take it again at +1⅓.
Line up all four photos. Which one shows the object best? Which one has the most shape?
If someone is home, repeat with their face: window behind you, then beside them.
