Do you struggle with how to use light in photography? Or find yourself using the same “safe light” over and over again because you don’t know how to control or work with more challenging light? If you do, then you’re not alone!

When you think about it, it makes sense that photographers would struggle with it, because it literally is the single most important element in any photograph, and it’s so changeable and versatile.

But as photography literally means “painting with light” so it’s so incredibly important that we, as photographers, understand how light behaves, and how to manipulate it.

Here’s the thing: much of the time, it’s our mindset that holds us back more than anything else when it comes to light. We believe certain things, and because we do, we fail to see and exploit the opportunities that the available light gives us.

For myself, breaking free of always having “perfect” light, and forcing myself to work with whatever was available has allowed me to be more creative, feel more inspired and confident, and create images that are better than ever!

So although all light may not be equal, and some light may be “better” than others for what you want to capture, if you approach light with the right mentality, I promise it will reward you with some of your best images :)

Here’s some of the ways that I used to hold myself back when it came to light - check them out and see if you recognise any of these!!

Before we dive in, I just quickly wanted to let you know about a freebie I’ve got for you that is PERFECT for you if you want to learn how to take your next steps on your photography journey, by learning more about LIGHT.

Before we dive in, if you’re interested in learning more about light, be sure to download our Photography Lighting Starter Guide! You'll learn all about the building blocks of light - its colour, intensity and direction - along with some ideas for using each one to kickstart your creative juices.

Got that? Then let’s dive into the myths that might be holding you back…

Light Myth #1: I Have To Shoot In The Golden Hour

How many times have you heard this: the golden hour (ak.a the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset) is the best time to take pictures, so that’s when you should plan all your shoots for. The end.

As photographers, we do hear this a lot don’t we?!

But it’s just simply not practical to plan every single image to be taken at golden hour, not least because most of our daily lives happen outwith these times! Even if you are in business, those times might not always be practical for your clients.

Don’t get me wrong, planning a special shoot at golden hour is a fantastic idea, as it gives your images a “look” like no other, but there’s no way on this earth that is going to be the ONLY time you shoot, especially if your goal is to photograph your family or your daily life.

That means you’ll need to learn how shoot during cloudy days, low light, in the rain and snow, and on bright, sunny days, but more than NEED, I think you’ll WANT to shoot at those times too!

Low light can give fantastically moody images, sunny days are great for bright, highly saturated, fun images and you can create true magic with snow and rain, so why on earth would you want to avoid these?!

So, yes, the golden hour light is insanely beautiful, and it’s an amazing time to shoot, but other types of light will give you fantastic images too, so don’t miss out on capturing those waiting for the “perfect” time. So many of our Mastering Natural Light students said they felt empowered by being able to use light in so many different ways, felt more confident, and got more creative images, so it’s worth expanding your range away from just the golden hour!

Light Myth #2: Natural Light is Bad Because It’s Never The Same

Yep, natural light can beautifully unpredictable, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any control - far from it! It’s all about knowing how to work with what is around you to create the results you want.

For example, if you are shooting on a sunny day, you can choose to diffuse the light for a softer look, embrace the hard light for more contrasty, highly saturated images, or create a softer backlit effect.

If you are shooting indoors you can choose different window sizes and placements to get super soft or super hard light for different looks, and embrace the fact that you can get multiple looks from one window!

Great photographers aren’t great because they simply luck out and always happen to get perfect light, it’s because they learnt how to work around the problems that the light creates: in short, how to create magic with what they have.

So the one thing you can do to immediately improve ALL your photos is to learn how to manipulate the light given to suit your vision, so you can always work with what you’ve got.

Light Myth #3: The Light in My Home is Too Dark

Small windows can make for truly amazing dramatic images, so if that’s what you have in your home, learn to embrace them!

Your smaller windows will allow you to play more with shadows, and shadows and light together is what makes images feel more three dimensional. In fact, lighting in photography often all about the shadows! (Want to dive into this deeper? Read this post 4 Ways Shadows Can Add Impact To Your Photos)

Although you might not be able to get the light and airy look to your images with a darker home, you can decide to make the most of what you have, and create beautifully dramatic and creative images instead.

I’ve definitely manipulated my light source to make it act more like a small window in the past, so that my light and airy living room can give me images with depth and dimension, so instead of lamenting what you don’t have, learn to work with what you’ve got!

A good photographer finds ways to exploit almost any kind of light - the only thing that you are limited by is your imagination.

Light Myth #4: My Part of the World Has Horrible Light

I’m going to hold my hand up to this one! I believed this for years because my part of the world is not exactly known for it’s good weather 😜

Here in beautiful Scotland we can have four seasons in one day, sometimes even in one hour (yes, even in the height of summer!) so it can be often be impossible to predict the weather from one day to the next The only thing you can safely bet on is that you’re highly likely to get more clouds and rain throughout the year than anything else!

My beginner photographer self was not too happy about this, but as I’ve grown, I’ve begun to appreciate what I DO have. Cloudy days can be simply beautiful if you know how to add interest in other ways, and although I can’t use golden hour in summer too well (due to how early / late the sun rises/ sets) I can use it in winter - my photos just look different to those who live in climates where it’s sunny most of the year!

Now, did you spot the theme running through all of this?

Yep, mastering photography is not about waiting for the perfect light, it’s all about learning to work with what you have, both by changing your mindset to the light you’ve got, and by learning how to manipulate it.

So if you take one thing away from me today, it’s this:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BAD LIGHT.

It’s how you approach and deal with the light that is good or bad, not the light itself!

If you’re ready to take the next steps on your photography journey and make learning about light a priority, then be sure to grab my free guide “Mastering Natural Light” where I’ll walk you through all the fundamental building blocks of light, and teach you different ways to use the light in your photos!

As always, if you enjoyed this post, please share it! It helps keeps small one-woman blogs like myself alive and fed. Pin in to your Pinterest boards, share on Facebook or Twitter, or mention Live Snap Love on Instagram!