It’s not uncommon for experienced photographers to encounter several lighting issues in their photography. Natural vs. artificial light offers opportunities to impact and diversify our images. The more we understand both, the stronger our composition.
Time and experiences teach us about lighting. Our experiences elevate with resources, trial and error. This article contains comprehensive insights about natural vs. artificial light. We’re sharing:
- The importance of lighting in photography
- Natural lighting and its pros, cons
- Artificial lighting and its pros, cons
- Our recommended lighting method
Whether you are an amateur or an expert, this article is designed to assist you in both the short and long run of your photography career. Let’s get started!
Why is Mastering Lighting Important for Photography?
Imagine a world with no light. In that world, nothing will be seen – making vision quite futile.
In photography, lighting is important to bring our images to life. With no light, there is no photo. However, there are more reasons why lighting is critical for photography. Let’s take a look at three areas
- Clarity: Without proper lighting, the subjects will not appear clearly to the camera. Whether you are photographing products, models, landscapes, housings, etc., everything needs to have a minimum level of illumination for it to be visible.
- Aesthetic: Vision isn’t the only function of lighting. For a picture to appear aesthetically pleasant, lights serve a critical role. You can adorn the picture with shadows, contrasting lights, and a lot more. A professional camera’s full potential is be leveraged with appropriate and creative lighting.
- Polished Results: A lot of photographers tend to depend highly on post-production. Whilst photography post-production is an absolute must; the final image will be benefited immensely with lighting. Photo editors can do a lot more with an accurately lit shot compared to an unprofessionally lit image.
Unless you are looking particularly for a dimly lit shot, never underestimate the power of lighting. Even moody shots require at least one light to be angled in a specific direction, e.g., overhead lighting.
Natural Vs. Artificial Light in Photography
Now that we understand the importance of lighting, let’s review and compare natural vs. artificial light.
Natural Light
Natural light simply refers to sunlight. Although moonlight is also a natural source of light, it’s extremely difficult to take a picture under complete moonlight.
The Pros of Natural Light
Let’s look at all of the advantages of natural lighting in detail.
- No Cost With Creative Results: Natural light is the most cost-effective solution to lighting. How? Because it’s free!
Take a photo anywhere and everywhere. Just go out in the sun and shoot. Take it at noon for a very bright shot. Use the sunlight right before dawn or dusk to capture a creative shot. Place your subject beside a window to take a dramatic shot. There are a lot of effects you can achieve with natural light, for no cost!
No Lighting Gear to Carry: Minimize your gear! No light stands, no flashes, no batteries. You may need to use reflectors if you want to bring out the best of natural lighting. But that’s it. There is nothing else related to lighting that you will need for a naturally lit shot.
Thus, natural light is a quick, free solution to lighting in photography. A lot of natural shots even tend to look better than artificial shots. The brightness and intensity of sunlight are incredible, much more powerful than any artificial light.
Cons of Using Natural Light
Let’s look at all of the disadvantages of natural lighting in detail.
- Inconsistent Scheduling: As the metaphor goes, in life, there are sunny days, and there are thunderstorms – quite literally in the case of photography. If the weather is even slightly cloudy on a scheduled photoshoot, it may require you to reschedule the entire session all over again.
- Unreliable for Indoor Applications: Product photographers need to shoot images on a regular basis; thus waiting for the sun to come out perfectly is not a sustainable approach. Plus, natural light is almost unusable in indoor situations. Without plenty of windows, there may not be enough sunlight to illuminate your frame.
All in all, natural light is inconsistent for regular, professional photographers. However, if the environment and sunlight are complementary, don’t be afraid to go for it! Using natural and artificial light in combination also provides excellent results.
Artificial Light
There are various sources of artificial lights—flashes, bulbs, softboxes, lamps, etc. Whichever technology you use, the advantages and disadvantages are essentially the same.
The Pros of Artificial Light
Let’s discuss a few positives about artificial lighting in detail.
- Full Customizability: If you want complete control, artificial light is the way to go. It gives you 100% customizability to your lighting, which is why it’s used by all professionals worldwide.
- Consistent: Commercial photography has specific image requirements, indicating even lighting on the product. Artificial lighting is even and consistent. Most photographers carry spare lights to replace those in case a light breaks or dies. However, this rarely happens before these lights’ life expectancy. Thus, this isn’t even a concern.
- Creativity to The Max: Creativity is also another benefit of artificial lighting. You can use different colors and types of lighting. Playing along with artificial lighting and shadows is one of the most favorite things for glamour and fashion photographers.
Cons of Using Artificial Light
Let’s review the expenses and portability challenges with artificial lighting:
- First, it is quite expensive to assemble a high-quality lighting setup. The cost doesn’t come in one but in several places.
- Second, photography lights aren’t cheap, especially if you want professional ones. And it’s not just the light that you need to invest in. Accessories such as stands, umbrellas, additional light reflectors and dimmers add to the total costs.
- Third, then comes the electricity bill. Whether you use a power outlet or batteries, the electricity cost of artificial lighting is a constant expenditure. Over time, it may amount to more than the lighting equipment itself.
- Lastly, portability, carrying gear and luggage is a big consideration with lighting too. With artificial lighting, it’s very cumbersome to move around from one location to another. You may even need to hire an assistant!
Even though artificial lighting comes with its costs, there are a myriad of benefits. There’s a reason why professionals always choose artificial lighting before anything else.
Natural Vs. Artificial Light – Does the Sun or the Bulb win?
There is no way to recommend one method over the other. It all depends on your situation and preferences.
If you shoot photos regularly in a studio setting, artificial lighting is the way to go. If you use enough reflectors, the cost can also be cut down.
For earthy and homey shots, natural lighting may be the preferred method. Ecommerce stores, which sell homemade products most likely use natural lighting for their product images. Natural lighting resonates more with their product niche.
Regardless, keeping artificial lights is always recommended, whether you use them or not. You never know when varying light conditions call for additional light.
Final Verdict
The good news? There are a lot of portable and inexpensive kits in the market for hobbyists or beginner photographers.
We hope we have been able to answer all your luminous questions! Natural and Artificial lighting both are tremendously useful. Experiment with both to find out your favorite!
