Chapter 2

Front, Back And Side-Lighting

Nothing affects the amount of contrast in your picture more,
than the direction and the quality of your lighting. The
difference between dark and light areas plays not the least role
in affecting the tonal range, and combined with shape it
determines form. The contrast is higher, the harsher is the light
quality, and vice-versa. You can use the lighting direction in
order to suppress or emphasize your subject`s form.
a) Aimed at your subject, front-lighting, which is the light
behind your camera. or is the built-in electronic flash, or
sometimes even both of them at once, allows for a flattened
subject appearance, where the details are brought out with
minimal texture, as you can see in this photo of the ~bird of
paradise` flower and the clay-made wall sculpture.
b) Side-lighting, on the other hand, allows for the strongest
three-dimensional subject appearance. Hence, it tends to
emphasize shape and bring out maximum texture and detail in your
subject, it is used when the depth in your scene/subject needs to
be revealed. In this photograph the side-lighting was used to
bring out maximum texture of this wall sculpture.
c) Back-lighting is when you are shooting against the light,
or in other words, when your subject is lit from behind, as in
this portrait of a woman where a fill-in flash illumination was

used only to illuminate the front of the subject, while the back-
lighting was used to help to separate the subject's hair-line
from the otherwise having been blended together with the
background, as in the next photo of the mother and her son.
Creating high contrast, while reducing details, back-lighting
simplifies the form of your subject, and is often used for the
halo special effect too, if its volume is stronger than the
front-lighting, It is important to avoid looking directly into a
bright light source through your camera viewfinder, it may
permanently damage your eyes.
Unless your subject is in motion, you can always alter your
viewpoint, in order to utilize available lighting to its highest
photographic potential. Though remember, that altering your
viewpoint in relation to the subject, will not change the way in
which it is lit by the light source, unless the light source
itself is moved, it allows you to visualize how much of the
shadowed and lit areas you can see.
Avoid flare coming through the camera lens, by either
altering your viewpoint, or shading your lens with your hand or
other object (also, be careful not to include it in your
picture). Flare is often caused by the side or back situated
light source, and usually is damaging to the picture`s
appearance.

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