If I’ve learned anything through talking with other photographers, it’s that how to use light in in-home photo sessions can be a real doozy. And I get it. I’ve been there.
Either you walk into a home where there’s seemingly NO good light, or you think you’ve nailed it only to go to edit your photos and realize you didn’t quite hit the mark.
Why it’s important to understand light in the in-home setting
First, let’s talk about why knowing how to use light in in-home photo sessions even matters.
In my opinion, there are two reasons:
- Consistency in Editing
Have you ever gone to edit your in-home photos, and you just can’t quite get it right? You tweak and tweak and still don’t love it. You wonder why this is so difficult, and why you never like your in-home photos. They’re muddy, flat, have no dimension and absolutely are not consistent across sessions.
Therefore, you never know what you’re going to end up delivering when you shoot an in-home session, and this makes it much more difficult to confidently sell yourself as an in-home family or newborn photographer and to walk into each session knowing you’re going to deliver magical images. - Telling your Client’s Story
From a technical perspective, I find no element of photography more important to fully understand than lighting. You can take a photo of the same pose or setup in poor lighting or exceptional lighting, and they are two entirely different photos.
Poor lighting offers no dimension, no visual interest, and it doesn’t set the stage well for the story you’re telling. A photo that could be stunning basically falls flat in poor lighting conditions.
Good lighting, on the other hand, takes that same photo and magnifies everything that’s happening within it. The relationships, the bonds, the personalities – all of it comes to life when you set the stage with good lighting.
How to use light in in-home photo sessions
Now that you have an understanding of why understanding how to use light in in-home photo sessions is important, let’s talk about how to use it.
My number one rule when it comes to how to use light in in-home photo sessions is to use the rooms where the light is pouring through the windows. This could be a small window, or it could be a huge window. The size of the window is almost totally irrelevant when pinpointing the right room(s) to use.
In fact, I’ve shot in homes where there is a massive window and not used it. Why? Because there wasn’t light pouring through it.
If you want to create consistency in your in-home images, I can’t stress this enough. I promise you’ll find editing your images lightyears (pun intended) easier if you stick to this rule!
Hug the windows!
Simply being in the right room isn’t enough though. For instance, you can be in a room where there’s light pouring in but have your subject 10 feet away from the windows and you’re likely missing out on capitalizing on the light you’ve been given to work with.
You can’t just be in the room. You have to know how to use light in in-home photo sessions.
While I do believe many “rules” when it comes to art are meant to be broken, the most foolproof way to know you’re in the right spot within the room is to hug the windows.
Every home is different and every room is different, so there are absolutely scenarios where you can veer from this. In general, though, staying as close to those windows as possible is going to give you the best light on your subjects.
Learn more about in-home lighting in photo sessions
If you want to take a deeper dive into learning about how to use light in in-home photo sessions, I encourage you to check out my family photography education resources.
In addition to a family posing guide, a mastermind on in-home family photography and one-on-one mentoring for photographers, I also offer a variety of free resources for you to uplevel your in-home family images!
I would suggest checking out Four Tips to Uplevel your In-Home Family Photos, My #1 Family Posing Tip for In-Home Sessions and a training on how to book more in-home family photo sessions.
Have questions about in-home lighting? Comment on this post and let’s chat about what you’re struggling with!
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