The three directions of light

Monday 29 January 2024, 16:32 by Nando Harmsen | 6,433 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Photography means writing with light. That means you need light to take photographs. But it does not stop there, as there are different types of light. The direction of the light determines the look of a photo. Make use of it.

Light can come from four directions, or five if you are being very critical. Left, right, front and back. The fifth is from above. In fact, you could also count light from below. So not five, but six directions.

For convenience, I will leave light from above and below out of consideration. The quality of light from these directions is often not very attractive. Light from the left and right is essentially the same. This is side light, light that comes from the side. Whether it comes from the left or right does not make much difference.

Light from below is usually not attractive, but it can also be used deliberately for a particular effect, as in this album photo shoot by the band XMH.
Apart from side light, there is also backlight and, of course, frontal light, for which I cannot think of a catchy name. This is light that follows the direction in which you are photographing. You can get started with these three directions of light to make your photo look as good as possible.

Backlight

Backlight is light that shines straight towards your lens, or even into it. This could be the sun or a flash. This light creates a lot of contrast in the photo. It can create a rim of light around your subject, known as rim light or hair light.

The backlight creates beautiful hair light around this grey heron. It brings atmosphere to the photo.
Backlight creates atmosphere. It can be mysterious or dreamy. It often makes the photo very exciting. Avoid brightening the dark areas of a photo too much, as that often takes away the atmosphere.

Side light

If the light comes from the left or right, you are dealing with side light. A subject is lit from the side. This means that one part is lit and another part is in shadow. You also see a shadow on the ground.

Side light, as used for this studio portrait of Chloë, provides depth and definition.
This direction of light gives the subject depth. Details become clearly visible and shapes are emphasised. This is all caused by the shadows created by this light. You can influence the direction of the shadow to some extent by changing the angle of the light by changing your position.

Frontal light

When the light comes from behind you, over your shoulder, it is frontal light. This light is similar to direct flash. It creates even lighting.

Light falling frontally on the subject removes shadows. It is often flat and less interesting.
Even lighting sounds appealing, but it means that no shadows can be seen at all. Without shadows, there is no sense of depth either. A photo becomes flat and, in many cases, less interesting.

It comes down to shadows

If you look closely at everything, you will see that the best quality of light always involves shadows. With backlight, you photograph the shadow side of your subject with a rim of light. With side light, shadows provide definition in your subject. With frontal light, there are no shadows.

Backlight is one of my personal favourites, and that has everything to do with atmosphere.
However, frontal light can still produce beautiful effects. You can do this, for example, by including shadows cast by objects around you in the composition. Use your own creativity for this.

Which direction of light do you prefer to photograph with? Let us know in a comment below this post.

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