My Experience with Lighting

For a long time in my photography career, lighting was extremely daunting. The difficulties I faced when getting into photography were dealing with people and learning lighting, I felt that I was always going to be a landscape photographer.

One day long ago, while in South Korea, I came across a scene in downtown Songtan that I really liked. At the time I was enjoying shooting cityscapes at night, and the composition of this scenes struck me, the only issue was a dark corner that I felt was taking away from the image. After doing a bit of research I picked up a little Godox speed light and once I got the shot I was hooked on learning lighting. The next bit of fear I needed to get over was dealing with people, that came with time but now I really enjoy working with both people and lighting in order to capture the best representation of a person that I can.

5 years later I am still learning but I have grown such an appreciation for the shaping of lighting that I use it in nearly all of my portrait shoots. Not discounting the talent of natural lighting photographers (that’s a whole skill in itself) but when I see a composition that I like, and know that I can make the lighting the way I want, that’s the biggest help in the world.

For those wanting to get into it, start small, challenge yourself, and don’t spend a bunch of money on learning the basics. Light painting with the flashlight on your phone is a good place to start.