What is Natural Light Photography?
Have you heard the term natural light photography? It is basically what it sounds like and I consider myself a natural light photographer. Keep reading and I’ll explain what this means.
This is Titus of @lily.and.titus and I photographed him on the beach. This is an example of natural light photography since the sun was my light source.
This is what I found on wikipedia: “Natural light photography is simply to record an image using the light that exists all around us. This can be direct sunlight, reflected sunlight or ambient sunlight. Unless you are strictly a studio photographer then you by default are a natural light photographer.”
Other examples of natural light photos. Lily of @lily.and.titus
The definition though may have you asking these questions: What’s the difference between direct sunlight and ambient sunlight and just what is ambient sunlight?
So natural light is when I use the natural light source that is provided wherever I am, and I am not adding in light (such as flash.) Natural light can be direct sunlight or it can be ambient light. Most of the time in my work, the sun is my light source.
Ambient light is whatever light is present in the scene. It can be direct sunlight or if I’m indoors, it can be light coming in through a window or it can be artificial lights such as an overhead light in a room.
In this photo I used a strobe light. The sun was in front of me and behind the subject so in order to light the dog I used flash so this isn’t a natural light photo. If I hadn’t used artificial light, the photo would be really dark.
80% of the time I consider myself a natural light photographer. The other 20% of the time, I will add in “flash” to my photography. It just depends upon what the circumstances require.
This is a entry for the 52 week pet photography blog circle. Dog photographers from around the world participate and next up is Elaine Tweedy of I Got The Shot Photography, Northeastern PA Pet Photographer. If you click the link at the bottom of each post, you’ll go around the circle and you’ll end up back here when you’re finished.