The importance of lighting is kinda common sense for most people, especially photographers. However it is also the most overlooked element for photographers who are just starting out. Looking back at some of the photos i have taken in the past, i realized that my control of ambient and artificial light had improved but still not ‘accurate’ enough.

For those who are viewing my blog, i am very sure that the most important thing to you right now (as a amateur photographer) is getting the ‘best’ lens, ‘best’ equipment, ensuring your composition is correct and posing/styling your subjects well. But please believe me, lighting is the key to almost everything in photography.

There are many reading materials as well as videos online that can teach you on how to bounce your flash, how to play with ambient light etc…. Therefore i am not going to do all those. Instead, i am going to tell you why light is important and how it can screw your pictures up with you do not respect light.

Firstly, light provides you color. Without light reflecting of any form of surface, no color or image would be captured. Harsh lighting and bad control of lighting can also screw your photos up by giving you a ‘flat’ image. Making your colors turn out ‘weird’ (what was supposed to be green ie. grass, becomes orange), wash out your highlights whereby no single detail is left in your image which renders a washed out photo not being able to be rectified by photoshop because there simply isn’t any details in the washed out area at all!

Other than that, bad control of lighting can also make your subjects look awkward in photos. The most classic example would be the squinting of eyes due to the glare of the sun. Subjects perspiring and causing their face to look oily and having sweat drops all over.

For those of you who enjoys taking photos of infants and kids, harsh sunlight would make these kids not pose for you at all! Simply because they would not be able to withstand the heat from the sun.

There are probably 100000 more ways that harsh lighting can kill your photos. But i am sure that the points i have just mentioned above will scare you and make you wanna learn how to control both artificial light and ambient light well.

The journey in photography is not a simple one. There are many details in photography that we all have to learn together in order to become a better photographer =)