Hi friend.
I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but I live in Seattle, WA, and it is starting to feel like fall.
The days are already getting a little shorter.
The evenings are cool. We even have rain in the forecast again…
And very soon, our days are going to be much shorter, and for natural light photographers, that means our potential working hours also take a cut
If you’re a photographer who works with natural light, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Summer gives us long days. And those long days, give us options…Then the season changes and our window for “good light” gets smaller and smaller. And what really sucks, is that this change in light happens just as the busy fall season is picking up.
So, just as our bookings are increasing, our light starts leaving us.
Now, if you listen to this podcast then you probably already know that I love working with strobes and flash, and you’re probably think that thats what I’m going to pivot into….
But I also know that there are many photographers who work exclusively with natural light and LOVE natural light, and so it thats you, then please stay, because I actually wrote this \episode for you…
There is a cost to being a natural light photographer that nobody talks about. And honestly, if someone would have had this conversation with me at the beginning of my career, ti would have saved me years of stress and years of wasted time and money.
So lets talk about it…
I Love Natural Light
Before we go any further, I want to make something really clear.
I love natural light.
I always have.
I worked exclusively with natural light for the first 12 years of my career.
In fact, the entire reason I learned how to use strobes and flash the way that I use them was because I wanted a way recreate the look of natural light.
I don’t actually like the look of traditional flash.
And I didn’t want to become a flash photographer.
I wanted my photos to look like my photos.
Soft.
Simple.
Natural.
And for a long time, I thought the only way to get that look was with natural light.
But I also knew that Natural light isn’t always there when you need it.
And for years, that was one of the biggest sources of stress in my business.
When the Light Was Good, My Photos Were Good
But when the light was bad?
So were my images.
And I knew this… so I would try to work around it.
I remember obsessively checking the weather forecast before sessions.
Especially this time of year.
I’d worry.
I’d move sessions around.
Sometimes I’d have to reschedule. Or even cancel,
And sometimes I’d just decide to make it work, grab my digital camera, bump up my ISO, open my lens as wide as it would go and drop my shutter speed.
And honestly, a lot of times that would work, Especially if I was just photographing one baby,
But it’s hard to photograph an entire family when you’re at f2 and a thirty of a second.
And so even if I got some good pictures of the kids, the family photos were almost always terrible. And that led to unhappy clients, refunds, and people who just didn’t come back the next year.
And what really changed for me was when I finally had the courage to admit that I wasn’t the one actually in control of my work.
The available light was.
And that meant my business and my livelihood was dependent on the weather.
YIKES
The Cost of Dependence
And that’s the point I want to make today.
Because the problem isn’t natural light.
Natural light is beautiful.
The problem is depending on it.
Because when you depend on natural light, it starts making decisions for you.
It decides when you can work.
It decides where you can put your client.
It decides which rooms you can photograph in.
It decides what camera settings you have to use.
It might even decide which jobs you’re willing to take and which ones you say no to.
And we don’t always recognize those things as limitations.
Sometimes they just become part of how we work.
We say things like:
“I only schedule sessions at certain times.”
“I always photograph next to this window.”
“I don’t photograph in homes because I don’t know what the light is going to look like.”
“I don’t take hospital sessions.”
“I don’t shoot events.”
Or…
“I just prefer natural light.”
And maybe you do.
I do too.
But I think it’s worth asking:
Is that actually your preference?
Or have you built your business around the limitations of the light you know how to use?
Because those are two very different things.
Dependence Costs You Flexibility
The first cost is probably the most obvious.
Flexibility.
If you need natural light, your schedule is tied to it.
And in the summer, maybe that’s not a big deal.
But now we’re heading into fall. And winter is just around the corner
The days are getting shorter.
The weather is becoming less predictable.
And suddenly the hours available to you start disappearing.
Maybe you can’t take that 4:00 session anymore.
Maybe you have to move a session because it’s raining.
Maybe your client can only meet at a certain time and you know the light isn’t going to be great.
Those limitations have real consequences.
They affect your clients.
They affect your schedule.
And if you’re running a business, they can affect your income.
But I actually think there’s another cost that’s we rarely thing about… which
Your Creative Freedom
When you only know how to work with the light that’s available to you, you’re forced to build your photographs around that light.
You put your client next to the window because that’s where the light is.
You photograph in one room instead of another because that’s where the light is.
You face your client in a certain direction because that’s where the light is.
And again, there’s nothing wrong with any of those decisions.
Unless that’s not actually what you would prefer.
I mean, wouldn’t you rather choose how to create a photograph based on the room, or the pose, or the moment that is happening rather than on where there happens to be usable light.
That’s creative freedom.
And l speaking for myself, learning how to create my own light gave ability. And being able to do that is so much fun!
Dependency on Natural Light Also Costs You Consistency
This one was huge for me.
Because when I relied exclusively on natural light, my July work looked very different from my November work.
My work on a bright day looked different from my work on a dark day.
My work in a house with giant windows looked different from my work in a house with tiny windows.
And that’s a problem when you’re running a photography business.
Consistency is a very important part of your brand.
Your clients hire you because they see your portfolio and think: I want that.
And so your job is to be able to give them that.
Session after session.
Client after client.
Everytime you pick up your camera.
And honestly, I think that’s where lighting changed my business more than anything else.
It gave me consistency.
And consistency allowed me to develop a recognizable style. Which built my brand, and my business, but it also changed the way I felt about myself and my work..
Confidence
And that confidence piece is really important.
Listen, when the quality of your work depends on the quality of the light you walk into, there’s always this little question hanging over you:
Can I create something beautiful with this, and then if you do, Can I do it again?
You can have an incredible session where everything comes together perfectly.
The light is beautiful.
Your client is beautiful.
The photos are exactly what you wanted.
And you’re thrilled.
But then the next session is in a dark room.
Or it’s pouring outside.
Or you walk into the house and there are tiny windows.
And suddenly you don’t feel like the same photographer anymore.
That’s an awful feeling.
I know because I’ve been there.
And I didn’t realize how much mental energy I was spending worrying about light until I didn’t have to worry about it anymore.
Imagine If the Light Didn’t Get a Vote
So with fall coming, here’s what I want you to think about.
Imagine if the available light didn’t get to dictate what you get to create.
Imagine walking into your next session and not immediately searching for the biggest window.
Imagine choosing where you want to photograph your client because it’s the best place for the photo you want to create.
Imagine looking outside and seeing dark clouds and not caring.
Imagine scheduling a session at a time that’s convenient for you and your client instead of scheduling it around the light.
Imagine knowing that whether it’s August or November…
10:00 in the morning or 4:00 in the afternoon…
Sunny or pouring rain…
You can create photographs that still look like you.
Wouldn’t that be great?!
And I want to be clear about something.
I’m saying stop using natural light.
I’m talking about having options.
Because knowing how to create your own light doesn’t take natural light away from you.
It gives you another tool.
And when you understand that tool, something really interesting happens.
You stop needing conditions to be perfect.
You stop hoping the light will cooperate.
You know how to make it work.
And that changes the way you walk into a session.
So Here’s My Question for You
As we head into fall, I want you to pay attention to your relationship with light.
Notice the decisions you’re making because of it.
Are there times you won’t schedule?
Locations you avoid?
Photos you don’t attempt?
Do you find yourself checking the weather before sessions?
Do you panic a little when you walk into a dark room?
Do you feel like a confident photographer when the light is beautiful… and a completely different photographer when it isn’t?
Just notice.
Pay attention
Because I think sometimes we tell ourselves that we’re natural-light photographers when what we really mean is:
Natural light is the only light we feel confident using.
And those aren’t the same thing.
You don’t need to stop loving natural light.
You don’t need to stop using natural light.
And you definitely don’t need to stop thinking of yourself as a natural-light photographer.
You just need to stop depending natural light.
And that is a very different thing.
I’ll see you next week.
