Tuesday Tips #292 – Making the Most of Artificial Lighting

When you’re surrounded by warm, golden sunlight it can be easy to shoot to your heart’s content or even become a bit eh, em…lazy because of its generous open availability. But come winter, the days are shorter and our light is cut off abruptly until the season of light rolls around again. If you find yourself putting away the camera right about now, we’re here to tell you you’re missing out in a big, big way. Artificial light has a bad rap and we’re dedicating a whole month of Tuesdays to spiffing up its reputation.

For starters, without a doubt, save your sanity and shoot RAW especially when dealing with this kind of light. When possible, limit the different light sources within your images, especially if they have different “temperatures”. Warm light from a lamp in the corner and cool light from a source like a computer screen will throw off your white balance and leave you with a tug of war when editing.

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
― Plato