Attention to lighting can make a huge difference in your photos (USATODAY.com)
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY 8 minutes ago
It's the middle of summer, and you have a brand-new digital camera, but your pictures aren't looking as stellar as you had hoped.
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Perhaps there are huge shadows under the eyes of your subjects, or a whole lot of squinting faces.
It doesn't have to be that way. We checked in with Scott Kelby, author of the best-selling, two-volume The Digital Photography Book, for five basic lighting tips that can dramatically improve anyone's pictures - even those made with the most inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras.
Kelby's tips:
•Find the shade. "People who are new to photography always pull their subjects directly into the sun, which is the most unflattering light in the world," Kelby says.
Instead, take the shot in the shade. "The light will be soft, and your subject won't be squinting," he says.
Step under an awning, on a stoop, anywhere there's even light with no shadows on your subject's face.
If you're seeking shade under a tree, though, take care: Sometimes tree branches will produce light spots from the sun cracking through. That can make your subjects look sickly.
"Keep moving them to the left and right, until you get the spots off their face," Kelby suggests. "Just be sure they're totally in the shade."
•Shoot into the sun. Maybe you're at the beach, a running track or a parking lot, and there's no shade to be found. You have no choice but to shoot with direct sunlight.
Use the sunlight as a backlight, Kelby says. Position subjects with the sun behind them so it puts a nice rim light effect around them (outlining their hair). Use the point-and-shoot flash to put just enough light into their faces to make them blend in with the natural light that surrounds them.
•Window light. Go for what Kelby calls "the best light ever created: natural light." Put your subject directly in front of a window and stand to the side, and you have "beautiful, soft light," he says.
He suggests having the model stand just a few feet from the window and then take a few steps back yourself. "Shoot from the window position back at them, and you get beautiful, directional light."
•Turn the flash off. Many point-and-shoot cameras have overbearing flashes that can overpower your image: Your background turns to black, and your subject looks like a grinning light bulb with hair.
Solution: Turn the darn thing off. Look for the symbol on the back of the camera (we've never seen one without it). It looks like a lightning bolt, and they all work the same. Most cameras let you put the flash at half or quarter power or turn it off altogether.
If you're in a decently lighted setting with afternoon, morning or early evening sun, turn the flash off, and your background and foreground will be decently exposed.
•White balance. Ever notice how a picture taken under fluorescent lights has a background that seems very yellow or orange?
In the old days, film photographers used different kinds of film for different kinds of lighting. In the digital era, you can simply change a camera's lighting settings.
Cameras have a "white balance" tool (often listed as WB) that lets you choose among different types of light: daylight, fluorescent, flash, cloudy and incandescent. The standard setting, auto white balance, will work for you in most cases. But if the background colors look odd on the LCD preview screen, change the setting.
"It sounds so simple, but it will make a dramatic difference," Kelby says.
Photo-editing made easy
Beyond lighting tips, one simple solution for improving your digital photographs is to edit them with easy-to-use software.
You can tweak lighting from dark to light, convert to black-and-white, crop and rotate.
Digital cameras generally come with rudimentary software that will do the job. Much better choices are available elsewhere, often for free.
Google's Picasa is a great tool not just for quick picture fixes, but for managing your ever-growing digital image library.
With Picasa, you can search for images, find them really fast and store them online at Picasa Web Albums.
Adobe makes the software synonymous with digital imaging: Photoshop. There are several versions of the No. 1 photo software. Top-of-the-line Photoshop sells for about $600. A consumer version, Photoshop Elements, is $99.
Adobe has a free online version available as well, Photoshop Express, which lets you improve lighting, crop, rotate, fix red-eye and add cool color effects to your photos.
It will take you more time to get your pictures into Photoshop Express than Picasa because you'll have to upload them to the Internet, but once they're there, they can be accessed from anywhere.
Another free online choice: Picnik has similar editing tools (crop, rotate, fix red-eye, etc.) and is somewhat easier and quicker to use than Photoshop Express.
All the programs offer easy ways to size your pictures properly for e-mailing or posting online.