In this age of digital cameras, you have probably thought that you can just point and shoot and out will appear a great shot.  Not so fast.The honest truth is, you may have a great digital camera, but if you are clueless in what to do, you will take ugly shots.

Well, I’d love to share with you some great advice in photography to help improve your skills.  These tips are coming from years of experience as a San Diego wedding photographer.These tips are all about the lighting and they will some of biggest reasons for you success in taking photographs.

First great tip in regards to lighting.  Now if you are taking shots outdoors during the day, natural sunlight provides some of the best lighting possible.  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 can wash out the details in faces if the sun is overhead.

Overall, most of the shots you are going to want to take with the sun behind you.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 have tackled the day shots, what if you are taking shots at night? 

The trick to taking night shots is to turn off your flash.Now if it is pictch black, of course you will need it, but if there are some lighting, use it, but make sure the shutter speeds are slower to let the light in.Another thing, make sure you keep a steady hand when you take your shot or you can blur the photos.Applying these couple of techniques will make a dramatic difference for those nights shots you take. 

The third and final tip with using lighting to capture great photos is the golden hour.There is this time that photographers like to call the golden hour or magic hour, and that is sunrise and sunset.

It is during this time of day when you will capture great shots that capture more warmer colors.You’ll be able to get that golden lighting that isn’t available during any other time of day.

There you go.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.