Natural or Artificial Light?

I have had this same problem. I have seen a lot of great inside lighting tutorials, but I haven't come across any on outside lighting yet. If I do, I'll let you know, but hopefully someone with some experience will answer you soon.

 

I have found that that I get the best outside pics on cloudy days.

 

When shooting outside, just make sure that the light is not direct and undiffused, as this will produce the harsh shadows and glaring, washed out highlights that you might have found. So, shoot in the shade, or wait for cloud cover, nature's diffusers.

And, if you are finding your pictures are colour cast, there is something the matter with your white balance. Have a look in your camera's manual for what settings you have available and how to alter them. "Daylight" setting is usually for full sunlight, which will be a different colour to the light on an overcast day, so will produce a cast. The settings are all rough approximations and the only way to get a truly accurate white balance is to set it as custom for each shoot you do (and twice in that shoot, if the lighting changes). If you are stuck and in a hurry, auto white balance can get you by, but really only just. Lots of things can make it give a weird reading (like brightly coloured clothes).

Anyway, good luck with it.

 

Not sure I do take very good quality pictures. And that process really is not very detailed. Two steps. Set you white balance for the light you have and avoid direct, full sunlight. Pretty simple and not too technical. Just have a look in your camera's manual for how to set white balance.

And early morning and late afternoon light is also good for pictures as the light is lower, meaning you get more texture and avoid that deep eye socket effect you get from overhead light. The light also has a warm quality, which can be pleasant.

And an example of a picture I took last weekend. It was an overcast day, which was perfect. Nice, soft light with no harsh shadows. Like being in a huge light tent. It was only a meet photo (which I don't worry too much about making perfect) so I used auto white balance, and that worked fine in this case. It doesn't always, and might need tweaking in post processing. Or, once you have got to grips with the basics of photography and want to start looking at more involved stuff, shooting in RAW will help you get the white balance just right, regardless of the shooting conditions, as it is all done in post processing.



Don't be daunted by the technical aspects of photography. It is necessarily a technical subject. Just learn and use a little bit at a time and you will be amazed by how much you pick up as you go along.

 

Just to add, it would really help if you can alter the white balance setting of your camera. Setting up your white balance helps in getting very accurate or latered colors of your photograph.

Here are some white balance settings and when to use them, these differ in each camera:

• Auto – this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. You’ll find it works in many situations but it’s worth venturing out of it for trickier lighting.
• Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colors in photos.
• Fluorescent – this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots.
• Daylight/Sunny – not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings.
• Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode.
• Flash – the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so in Flash WB mode you’ll find it warms up your shots a touch.
• Shade – the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up a little.

 

Thanks for clarifying this. I can adjust with my Canon Dslr so will play with these now before I shoot.

 

I also find that using a large white board as a reflector can really take the harshness out of strong shadows. A bit of white foamcore is perfect. I find that sunshine does add a certain spark of magic if its not too bright, sometimes using flash in bright sunshine can look quite good too, but usually not if the doll's hair is too shiny as it can look a bit plastic when the flash bounces off the fiber. Mohair wigs are perfect for this kind of photography.

 

No problem! Yes, if you have a DSLR keep checking the settings until you can manipulate it to your liking

 

I have the most cheap, rubbish sony cybershot - I went through all the settings on it trying to find one which worked for the conditions I normally photograph under - which is indoors - I hate flash with a passion too. I took a bunch of photos on various combinations of setting, and size by pixels, to find the one I was happy with. So I would just say experiment, and don't be afraid to take a million experimental photos - they cost nothing these days, so you've nothing to lose. Also as my camera's so bad I edit photos in photoshop elements 5 (which I found a used copy of on amazon for £11) It is fantastic! Nothing complicated - I only use the 'quick fix' to adjust the light levels, contrast, saturation, sharpness and colour levels, to get it true to life, and of course resize by pixel size, with all the boxes checked - my camera tends to take 'cool' photos so I 'warm' them and also up the pink as they have a green cast otherwise - awful camera but I can't afford a different one, so I'm pleased I managed to whoop this beast and make it do my bidding

 

I like indirect natural light for most things, but I recently cleaned an exploded battery out of my old electronic flash and that was fun to play with. The resurrected flash, not the battery. I mostly bounced the flash off the ceiling, sometimes also using a disposable foil baking pan to redirect the light up to the subject.

 

I'm useless at setting up artificial light, even with a daylight bulb and a light box! - so i always use daylight.

I used to take most of my photos in my conservatory, which is nice and light, but i find it's also quite flat. These days i prefer to take photos inside the house where it's comparably dark... the shots are much more atmospheric this way.

If i take photos outside it's always in the late evening when the sun isn't strong, and ideally with soft warm sunlight as the sun goes down. I'm not up early enough to get early morning shots, but i believe these have a similar quality

 

I take my photos at about 5pm. the sun glow is perfect

 

Natural lights, but in the shadows - or you will have ugly harsh shadows and overexposed lights on the face