The Direction of Light

No matter whether you are working with direct or indirect lighting, the direction from which the light is coming is very important to consider as you start photographing your child. Luckily, children look good in almost any light, so that makes them the ideal subject to experiment with lighting in your photography.

Light from the front, or direct light, is usually the most flattering kind of light, and is almost always used when photographing models. Front lighting is also called Flat lighting because placing your subject face on to the light gives your subject the most flattering picture because it creates shadowless light that disguises all the texture and or imperfections in the skin.

The broad light source from flat lighting usually provides a large enough area to allow the subject child to roam around a little bit while still in nice light. Another benefit is that you will not need a flash, or speedlight, in order to properly light your subject.

As you can see in the photo on the right there are no shadows, the skin texture looks great and if there were any imperfections in baby’s skin they most likely would not show up in this photograph.

Again, direct light refers to light which falls directly onto the subject from its source. Direct light is light that has not been diffused by anything nor has it been reflected or bounced off of anything else.

Tomorrow I will discus reflective light as we continue to explore the role of light in photographing children.

Remember, keep taking lots and lots of photographs of your kids. You will be glad you did!