In this age of digital cameras, you have probably thought that you can just point and shoot and out will appear a great shot.Hold on, don’t go so fast.The fact of the matter is, you can have the best digital camera, but if you have no clue in what you are doing, you are gonna take horrible shots.

Well, I would like to share with you some great tips on improving your digital photography skills.  These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer.  These tips all involve lighting and they are going to be some of the biggest keys to your success in taking your photos.

First tip you will use in regards to lighting.Now if the shots you are taking are outdoors during the day, some of the best lighting possible will be the natural sunlight.  Now you are probably thinking, “that’s easy, when you are a San Diego photographer since it is always shiny there”, when in actuality really bright sunlight can cast harsh shadows.Or it will wash out the face details while the sun is overhead.

Overall, what you will want to do is to have the sun behind you when you take most of the shots.This stops any harsh shadows in your photo caused by the sun.There will be some times when you want to take shots from different angles when you do try to get some shadows into the shots.

Now that we know what to do during the day shots, what if you have to take some night shots? 

The trick to taking night shots is to turn off your flash.  Of course if it is pitch black you will need it, but for times when there is lighting, you want to use the lighting that is around, but you have to make sure you set your shutter speeds slower to let in enough light.Also, stay steady when you are taking your photograph or you will cause the picture to blur.Doing these tricks should make a significantly dramatic difference when you take night shots. 

The final tips to using lighting for great shots is using the golden hour.Now there is a time that photographers refer to as the “golden hour” or “magic hour”, and that is during sunrise and sunset.

It is during this time of day when you will capture great shots that capture more warmer colors.You’re going to be able to capture the golden lighting you won’t find during any other part of the day.

There you have it.Probably the biggest tip in taking beautiful photos is to make use of the natural lighting around you.  Knowing what techniques to use for different parts of the day, or just scheduling a photo shoots to capture those times of day will help you become an excellent photographer.