8 tips for making the most of available light

When lighting conditions work in harmony with the scene or subject in front of you, the results can be sensational. Learning how to recognise the best available light source, whether that be natural light or artificial, can bring huge benefits. Best of all, you don't need an expensive lighting kit to make the most of it. All you need is an eye for good light. Once you start looking, you'll find it's all around.

Here are eight tips for mastering shooting in available light.

The earth is always spinning, so the angle and quality of natural light changes all the time. At midday, under a bright sun in a clear sky, the light will be top-down and hard, producing images with strong contrast. Photographers tend to dislike this kind of light, but it can work if the aim is to make the sunlight part of the scene.

When the sun dips lower in the sky, the light has to travel through more of the Earth's atmosphere. Lower wavelengths on the colour spectrum, such as blue and violet, are scattered by particles in the atmosphere, so colours become softer and warmer. This is why evening light and sunsets are vibrant reds and yellows, and why the time just after the sun rises and just before it sets is known as the golden hour.

Weather conditions have a big impact on the quality of natural light. On an overcast day, clouds will diffuse the sunlight and shadows will become less severe. Similarly, mist and rain can further soften and cool the light.

The time of year also plays a part. It depends on where you are in the world, but generally in winter, the tilt of the earth means the sun is farther away, making the angle of light more acute. So even though the days are shorter, we effectively have more directional light to work with. On the other hand, during the summer, the sun reaches a higher apogee in the sky, so it's more top-down and less photo-friendly during the hours around noon.

"Your choice of settings can be more complicated to manage in winter, when shooting snow or cloudy skies," explains Canon Ambassador Sebastien Devaud. "It's better to increase your exposure a little, compared to the auto exposure setting, so the snow or the sky appear more white than grey. Shooting in black and white is a good way to enhance the dramatic side of this season, while fog, mist, low cloud or water can also add a particular mood to winter shots."

In most indoor environments, there are likely to be pockets of lovely natural light for you to capture. A window offers a bank of soft lighting akin to a studio softbox. So if you're shooting people inside, ask them to move closer to a window and turn off any artificial lighting.

You could also use a reflector to bounce the light from outdoors back towards your subject. A reflector can be something as simple as a large piece of white card, or tin foil. The reflector will create soft and natural light, which you can angle and direct just as if you were aiming a flash.

Quality of light makes a big difference to your outdoor portraits. Bright sunlight can be rather unkind to faces as it creates harsh shadows and causes subjects to squint. Overcast conditions are perfect, as the soft light reduces shadows.

If the sun is shining and you can't wait for cloud cover, you could try shooting portraits in the shade of a tree or a building, as the light is softer and kinder to faces. Or you could try controlling the light with a reflector, either by shading the subject, bouncing light into the shadows, or using a diffusion panel. An efficient and affordable 5-in-1 reflector is ideal. Consider the model's skin tone when choosing a reflector colour.

As the sun drops below the horizon, the remaining natural light takes on the cool blue colours of twilight. This can be an opportunistic time to go out with your camera. But because the light levels are so low, you need a camera with good low-light performance. Cameras with larger sensors are capable of gathering more of the dwindling natural light, especially when used in combination with a lens that has a wide maximum aperture.

At twilight, you may need to drop your shutter speed to allow more light through to your camera's sensor. Canon's EOS R System mirrorless cameras offer game-changing IBIS, so you can handhold the camera for exposures of a second or more without having to worry about camera shake ruining the shot.

If you're comfortable setting your aperture and shutter speed, then one of the best exposure modes for shooting in natural light is Manual (M) mode with Auto ISO. This way, the camera works out the best ISO for the available light. A good general exposure setting in daylight is shutter speed 1/200 sec, aperture f/8 and ISO Auto. In the evening, when the light levels are lower, open the aperture to f/2.8 or whatever is widest to keep the ISO levels down for sharper, less noisy shots. This is where a lens with a fast maximum aperture, such as the Canon RF 50mm F1.8 STM, proves invaluable.

Low light often means shooting with a high ISO, which can lead to increased image noise. Autofocus can also be more challenging. But when using a camera with good low-light performance, such as the Canon EOS R6 or EOS R7, you can still get clean results with high ISOs, like 3200 or more. Additionally, the class-leading autofocus system works in almost total darkness.

As well as the quality of natural light, we also need to think about the colour. This can change throughout the day. In the morning, it's quite warm. At midday, it's cooler, and in the evening, it becomes warm again. We measure this in degrees Kelvin, and the shift can change from 2000K at dawn to 7000K in full daylight.

Colours can also become cooler if you're in the shade or under cloud cover. As such, set your white balance to match the conditions using one of the preset modes. If in doubt, shoot in RAW format, as you can choose any white balance afterwards when editing your images in RAW processing and photo editing software such as Canon's free Digital Photo Professional.

Positioning your camera on a stable surface or on a tripod enables you to capture scenes in twilight or even by moonlight, as it means you can shoot with very slow shutter speeds that run to several seconds or more. If you pair your camera with the Canon Camera Connect app, you can use your phone to trigger the shutter, start and stop Bulb exposures, and shoot remotely. This is useful if your camera is in a position where it's difficult for you to see the LCD screen, or for shots where even the slightest movement of the camera would cause blur or spoil the effect.

Different qualities of natural light can suit certain subjects. Subtle window light, for example, can be ideal for moody, low-key portraits. In contrast, direct sunlight is brilliant for showcasing vibrant colours and textures such as fur or feathers in wildlife photography. Long shadows can work brilliantly for architectural and street scenes, while backlighting from a sunset is ideal for capturing silhouettes against the vibrant sky.

You can also make the most of any artificial light that's available, such as streetlights, desk lamps or the glow from a bonfire or fire pit.

There's a wonderful variety of available light out there, so whenever you're out and about with your camera, ask yourself: is the light hard or soft, strong or weak, warm or cool, top-down or side-on? Get to grips with these lighting fundamentals and you can be confident your photos will turn out great, regardless of the conditions.



Written by James Paterson