Beautiful Use of Lighting in Photography

In Photography, by Dimi Arhontidis, May 20, 2010

Being a frequent "technical assistant" to my wife's photography shoots, one of my main duties is assisting with light setups. Anyone that is a photographer, or has assisted in a photo shoot knows how hard and time consuming it can be to get the perfect light setup, especially if you have a vision in your head that you are trying to achieve.

It takes a lot of trial and error, moving lights around, changing camera settings etc. It does not matter how many times you have done a similar setup in the past, it will always be a challenge due to several factors such as: location change, subject types, time of day, equipment etc.

After a shoot, photographers will use Photoshop or similar products for post work, from a small clean up job to a full on composition. There is a misconception however when it comes to photography and post production by people that are either new to photography or just outsiders looking in. Just because a photographer chooses to do a lot of post, it does not mean they are a bad photographer. Professional photographers will not use post to cover mistakes. They use tools like Photoshop, Aperture, and Lightroom to enhance details, create fictional settings, correct colors etc. Such tools will always be a big part of digital photography but the foundation of every great photo will always be the photographers vision, skill, and a carefully planned and well executed light setups.

Here is a list of some amazing photographs that range from simple lighting that produce clean and well lit photos, to wicked cool dramatic effects using studio and natural lighting in concert.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and links to favorite photos of yours in the comments area below!

Click images to enlarge.