How To Find Extraordinary Light in Everyday Moments In Your Home

You might be thinking to yourself when you see another person's photos, "There is NO WAY I can get photos like that, my house is SO DARK!"

I know exactly how you feel. I live in a little town home. Where half of the day the light shines nice on one side of the house and the other half of the day, only one room in the house has nice lighting.

At my mother-in-law's house, she doesn't have a great big bay window that allows in a lot of like. In fact, she hates opening windows and letting her neighbors "see" in her house! So how can I take natural light photos?

DO A WALK AROUND YOUR HOME.

Walk around the house and make notes where the lights comes in. Sometimes, it might be in weird places, like the garage, or the kitchen or even the bathroom! Take mental notes at what point in the day, the light is the softest.

This was the stairway right when the enter the house. I had my son sit so that the light just hit him gently in the face!

Here is another one of my son on the stairs.

I had my daughter jump up there and tickle him! It's amazing how many little moments you can find to take pictures of!

This was a difficult one to get! My son was playing my father-in-law's bongos and his face gently hit the small window light coming on the side, I had to be quick!

BE CREATIVE WITH WHAT YOU HAVE AND KNOW ABOUT WHITE BALANCE.

Sometimes a window light, a flashlight or a lamp can create an interesting light source. Remember, "Where there is light, there is a photograph."

My AUTO White balance (or the mood of my image, either yellowish- or bluish) was not hitting how I wanted the image to look. Did you know that one most cameras, you can adjust it manually. I always use a custom Kelvin white balance in tricky lighting situations like these. It makes my editing faster. To see how to do it, go to this post: By the way, this blog gives away a FREE ebook about 8 ways to improve your photography in a week. So check it out!

P.P.S. It was a soft child-friendly light, so no one was hurt in this image.

Here is a little older picture of my husband reading to my daughter in bed. I had a flashlight set on the side of the bed and had my husband tickle my daughter. I love the shadow it cast on the wall.

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK

Our eyes naturally see shadow. Sometimes putting a subject in the dark, makes depth in the photo that tells another story, a more intimate one.

I had my daughter kissing and hugging my son. I love how the light falls so gently on my daughter's face, but my son is in darkness.

Here is my son in front of my bay window. I love how only a small part of his face is light by the bay window light coming in.

I love properly done sillohuette photos. I adjusted my aperture on my lens manually to make my son appear shadowed. To see how I do this, read this article:

STAY PUT!

The light was coming in from my son's window so nicely on an overcast day.

So we stayed to take a bunch of photos, even my 5 year old held the camera and pushed the button for me, so that I can actually be in a photo for once!

Find the Light all around you!

Christal Marshall

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