How To Edit Photos Taken In Bad Lighting

When planning for my photo sessions, I consider the timing factor besides a lot of other factors such as the weather, the kind of the session, and the place. So when it comes to the timing, I choose a time during the day that helps me use the natural light alone if possible without using any other lighting, with that I can get warm sessions without any artificial light. I usually schedule my sessions in the early morning when the sun is warm enough but still not strong to the level that gives a very harsh light, with that it won’t bother my clients and their eyes. The other time is  30 to 45 minutes before the sunset, and this is my preferred time, because  I manage my camera settings to get enough light, and the light will be even, so there is no harsh shades on my clients’ faces,and when the sun starts to set I can get the kind of photos where the sun in the background of the scene and its rays starts to interfere with everything. However, there is sometimes that the sun sets fast, and  I have to take more photos. But thanks to the editing tools, I can edit those bad lighting photos later, and get good photos.

I took this photo of my niece with my old camera Nikon D90, Nikon 50mm and 1.8 lenses after the sun has set.I couldn’t set the ISO more than 250, because this camera does not provide a high quality image sensor. The shutter speed was 50. I would not go lower that 50 with the shutter speed since I was not using a tripod and the photo will end shaky.

The first secret of capturing good photos is to shoot in raw. Of course the size of the images will be larger, so you should use a memory card with a good capacity. But in the end you will have more freedom to edit your image other than depending on your camera to edit it and compress it for you. I rarely take photos without editing them even when I use my Nikon D750, even though I am in love with this camera and the results I get when I use it. But nobody can manage to shoot in a perfect situation with the perfect factors every time. So I always make sure to set the image quality to RAW, and edit them later using Lightroom and Photoshop.

Now, when I open the RAW image in Photoshop, I can edit the photos directly to the result I need. With this photo, I just needed to increase the exposure to a point that photo is bright enough and not overexposed.

Some photos need more editing than others, depending on how perfect the view is, sometime I have annoying extra objects in the photo in which I need to remove. Then comes the part of editing skin, colors, sharpening eyes and whatever your photography imagination can help you with. With this photo I sharpened the eyes a little bit, brightened the green, and put some extra lighting in the background to give a warm, sunny effect.

I know! big difference with some steps, right? 🙂 Please leave any comments or question below and feel free to share the blog 😀