Did you guys know the biggest, the cheapest, sometimes the softest and also the harshest light you have right now? Natural light is an excellent source of illumination for photography as it provides a soft, diffused light that can't create natural and organic looking images. To this video we're talking about the natural light and how you as a photographer would use cheap light source to create stunning, dramatic and moody poetry. There are several types of natural light each with its own unique qualities and characteristics. There are four types of natural light I would want to talk about. And I know you also confuse how are the four types of natural light. Natural light is natural light right? But yeah, I would explain and explore more on these four types that I've come up with so that you know I didn't want to do a four types of natural light. These are the four types. There's direct sunlight, diffused sunlight, black light and golden R. The direct sunlight is wonderful when the sun hits you or subjects directly creates strong shadows, creates hard shadows and creates deep shadows. Diffused light is quite softer and less intense than direct light or direct sunlight. You can get diffused light by putting your subjects in the shade when they're still sun, up and around. Light's catching true leaves or buildings. That's also an example of diffused lighting. All parts of your true and objects can be a reflector, can be a screen, can even be any material which allows light to pass through. That is where we find diffused light. The third one which is backlight. Backlight is just placing your subjects right in front of your light source. Your back will be facing the light source which is in sun. All you have to do is to figure out the direction or where the sun is positioned at that particular moment and you should use it. I usually don't encourage people to push it with backlight. Reason is, most of the subjects you should see are going to add dark skin subjects and to light a dark skin subject with backlight. Then all you're looking at are silhouettes and looking at what I like to do or what I am in the interior of which is the dark skin melanin. I like to see my skin tools rather than put them in a silhouette unless I'm being creative and trying to create something different. From the usual things I create, that's where obviously I'll use backlight. First of all, artistic and dramatic portraits are relative. It depends on the photographer and how. If she wants to convey the image she wants. As you can see, in as much as the light is sitting in the light, it's not hitting me. You're still on the direct light but it's passing through a pick subject which is the leaves from this particular tree. So this is what we call scatting light. When you want to use sunlight, the diacinth light is creatively. Make sure you have pleasing plants around to create shadows on your subject. I've had times where I had to shoot around 12 and all I had to do was just pass light to trees, palm fronds to create interesting patterns on the subject I'll shoot. I wanted to quickly mention an important thing I missed, reflected light. Wherever at this you find yourself shooting, always move towards the surrounding. The surrounding would then tell you what kind of light will be reflected in your image, what kind of color casts you would see in your image. It also should be in a lot of greenery environment. Majority of my color casts will look greenish. My compound on my floor, a sort of grayish diffs would then give me a little bit of a neutral reflected light. So always take notice of your surrounding which will then influence the kind of reflected light you would have in your image. The foot which is the most commonly used and most advised for all photographers that are out of is the golden hour light. The golden hour light can be from sunrise or can be as exactly when the sun sets up. Light that comes from the golden hour, our warm, soft. Because the setting is very soft and it's warm, it gives off that yellow feel on your image. Personally I used to love shooting with golden hour. Right now it takes a lot of things away from my skin. So it's warm, fixing it in post to probably then change the environment and that's what something I'm looking at for. But I have shots within golden hour recently as I'm wearing it. Prove difficult trying to maintain the skin tone but then I let it go because it was natural, the warm post mature. Working on natural light conflict is own challenges but I would want to reduce those challenges by giving you some tips on how to work with natural light in photography. Understand the direction of the light. The direction of the light can have a significant impact on your image. Front light increases a flattened evenly in light image while side light increases dead end dimension. Back lightens can create a dramatic and artistic effect on your image. So look out for that and how you would want to use any of these tips to better produce a very good natural light image. The second thing you need to keep in mind is the usage of reflectors. Reflectors are used to bounce back lights onto the subject, creating a more even and flat in light. Reflectors can be purchased or made from materials like foamboard or aluminum foil or even sheet chew umbrella. So figure out which one you would want to use in your image. I prefer the usage of bounce cards which produce diffuse reflected light onto my subject. The third thing you need to keep in mind is avoid harsh shadows. You might ask your shooting in natural light, but how do I avoid harsh shadows? Harsh shadows can be distracting and take away from the image you shoot. Positioning the subject in diffuse light or using reflectors can help to minimize harsh shadows. So when you bounce back lights into your shadows A. Open up your shadows and it eases a transition from highlights to middles into shadows. Also positioning your subject within diffuse light by using diffuses will reduce the intensity of your light source on your subject. You guys who see me use diffuses where I bring it closer to my subject and I send it far away from the subject. The idea behind the inverse color, bringing your modifiers closer to your subject to produce soft light and bringing a modifier far away from the subject to produce less soft light. Applied here also whether I use your shooting natural light outdoors. Sales with con windows I am shooting lights ISO 100 F 1.6.1.4 Let's increase the shutter speed, shutter speed of 350. I like this. You will close on your ISO here. You fit. Keep it no close. Close the ISO. We have to also on the face outside. Chin down. Chin down. Keep it. Guys this is Claudia. She helped in today's video. Let me give you guys my closing remarks on today's video. With the text on shooting natural light, I didn't mention a word harsh shadows. I also didn't mention it to know the direction of the sunlight. I didn't mention the use of reflectors and also waiting for the golden hour. In the video you saw me use my ball scars and my reflectors to quickly open up the shadows and help the transitions between the highlights. Two of the mid tones and two to the shadows. That probably helped a lot. And the second thing was to figure out the direction of the sun. We started shooting around TPM. It was quite the direction. I showed you how harsh it is when you use direct sunlight. I showed you how it is when you use diffuses. I also showed you how images looked like if you pass them to you or if the sun goes to hide behind the cloud. Also given as quiet and amongst us so flat. Bonus tip is when it's cloudy. It's actually the best time to shoot outdoors. Whenever you see the clouds covering the sun during a hot time, rainy season, any other day you see overcast light. It's the best time to shoot with natural light. The cheapest, biggest, softest, harshest, simplest one-light source, which is the natural light, will help you ask the photographer. It's also a one-light source and I'm adding it to one light produced. So in all, mastering one light, mastering natural light, mastering the use of reflective diffuses, power-scarred, or elevating one light's natural light photography, if you ever find a source you send out to us. I'll see you in my next video. Peace! Thanks for watching!