Lighting is probably the single most important element in photography. In fact, photography literally means writing with light. When I talk to people about their photos, the single biggest disappointment they have with their results can be traced back to a problem with the lighting at the time they took the picture. Harsh light, shady faces, elements lost in the dark or fuzzy images because of camera movement in dark places.

Your vacation photos will likely be taken in a wide range of lighting situations so it is important to understand them, understand how your camera will work in each situation and what you can do to best manage the light.

You will come across three different types of light. First, natural light which, of course, is the light that comes from the world around us. The source is daylight, either on a sunny or overcast day. While we are usually pretty happy with natural light, we still have to give thought to its impact. Bright, sunny midday light is often too harsh for good photography and leads to dark shadows and over-exposure. Natural light in mornings and evenings, known as golden and blue hours, is much less “contrasty” and is warm and inviting. When planning your trip from a photographic point of view, try to time your bucket-list outdoor shots for these times of the day. Natural light on overcast days is more diffused. You will not see the deep shadows of a sunny day. This type of light is great for people photos where a face or eyes might otherwise be lost in the shadows. If I am photographing rivers, waterfalls or fountains, I prefer a cloudy day to reduce the glare on the water and allow for a slower shutter speed to give a sense of the motion of the water.

Second, artificial light from man-made sources. Artificial light is interesting because it covers a wide range from incandescent lightbulbs to fluorescent tubes to LED-type bulbs. Each is significantly different, and your camera will react differently to the diverse sources. In simplest terms, your camera measures different light sources using its white balance settings. Most cameras do a good job of adapting to these differences so you can usually just leave it on “auto white balance”, but you can also get very impressive results by experimenting with different WB settings so give this a try before you start your trip.

The third type of lighting you will run into on your travels is low light. This can be natural light or artificial and can be outdoor or indoor. Think about a church or museum where the light may be both natural from windows and artificial from electric lighting of some sort. As above, until you have worked out how to adjust manual ISO settings on your camera, it’s probably best to leave your white balance on auto. The thing to remember is low light means slower shutter speed and/or a higher ISO setting. ISO is your camera’s sensitivity to light as opposed to its exposure setting. A higher ISO setting allows for a faster shutter speed which makes low light photography easier, however there is a tradeoff here. A higher ISO setting can lead to a grainy look to your image. Low light can give you gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, more saturated colors and the ability to play with silhouettes. Some considerations to increase your success with low light photography are:

Consider a tripod. Although they may seem cumbersome, there are many that are well suited to travel photography and they will allow you to slow the shutter down without having to increase your ISO.

Use a wide aperture (small F stop number) This allows more light into your camera for a given shutter speed.

Know how your camera’s white balance will work in different low light situations. Auto white balance on modern cameras is usually pretty smart but don’t be afraid to experiment. You might love the outcome.

Remember that really low light can hinder your camera’s ability to auto focus. A small flashlight can light up a spot in your scene enough to allow you to manually focus. Before doing this, turn off your camera’s auto focus so that it doesn’t try to change the focus once you have set it.

Regardless of the type of light in a scene, you should learn to recognize the direction of the light. A scene might be either front-lit, side-lit or back-lit. Each will affect how you compose your shot.

Front light has the light source pretty much in front of the subject. As long as the light source (i.e. the sun) isn’t too bright, this should lead to a well-lit well -balanced scene or subject. As the photographer, you would be right in front of the scene or subject with the light source behind you. Watch that you don’t include your shadow in the scene. Remember that if the light source is high behind you, there may well be shadows in your scene. See above about not shooting in the middle of the day. Also, front light can make your subject or scene look flat. If possible, try walking left or right to change the angle in which the light falls on the scene. If you are taking a photo of a person, have them turn slightly one way or the other while you watch carefully to see how the new angle changes the light on their face.

With the morning sun directly behind me, the balloons and the surrounding terrain are equally lit. Originally, this photo was pretty flat so I adjusted the contrast afterwards to give the scene some depth.

Which leads us to side lighting. This is just situating yourself so that the light covers your scene from the side. Side light is perfect when your intent is to add depth to a scene. Side light also can add a feeling of texture to a scene.

In each of these, the light coming from the side adds contrast, texture and depth to the scene

Side lighting can be natural light, like sunlight coming from either side of the scene or it can be artificial. If all else fails, you can create side light by using a flash or other portable light source. You have to be careful with on-camera flash as they can be quite harsh. Most cameras allow you to raise or lower the strength of the flash and if you are using a flash that is mounted on top of your camera, you should be able to adjust the flash direction. If this is the case, try pointing the flash above your scene to make the light look more natural. Remember that flash photography is not welcome at many indoor locations like churches and museums!

Last but not least, backlighting. As you’ve guessed, backlighting has the light source behind your scene or subject. As the photographer, you are looking at the dark side of the subject. Backlighting has somewhat limited application in most people’s travel photography, however there is room to play here, and you should at least recognize the opportunities when they present. For portraits, backlighting will reduce the light on a person’s face obviously but will create a halo effect around the edge of their head which can be very striking. Backlighting a nature scene usually involves creating a silhouette of the elements in the scene. With a beautiful sunrise or sunset as the light source, you can create a stunning image that you’d be proud to show off!

Two very different examples of backlighting. Above, the setting sun behind the clouds creates rays of light in the distance and silhouettes the palm trees in the foreground. To the right, I positioned myself so that a small ray of sunlight was directly behind this leaf cluster as it thawed out from an early fall frost.

As a final tip on backlighting, find an interesting subject (a statue, a building or what have you) set your camera’s aperture to f16 and then walk around the shady side of your subject. Position yourself so that the sun is juuuuust peaking around the corner of the subject and take your picture. This will cause the sunlight to “starburst” along the edge of the subject for a pretty dramatic effect.

Finally, when I’m shooting with my smartphone or when a flash attachment doesn’t suit the situation, I use this to provide proper, manageable light. Compact and fully controllable. Take a look.

Okay, that was a lot of information. I hope you will take it and practice. You’ll love the results!