Window light

Learning goal

You will be able to use a window in your home as a deliberate light source. You will explain why the light coming through a window is wide and soft, how light drops off quickly into the room, and how the direction the window faces changes the light through the day; you will choose the character of the light by placing the subject relative to the window, fill the shadows with a white card or a bedsheet, and set up a simple studio at home for a portrait or a product photo without buying any equipment.

The question

Think of the inside of a professional photo studio: big white boxes hanging from the ceiling, umbrellas, stands, cables. This equipment is expensive, and most people believe a good portrait can't be taken without it. Yet for centuries, painters worked on many portraits with a single light filtering through the wide windows of their studios.

Is there a free studio in your home? Yes, and it is most likely on the wall of the room you are in right now: the window. A window does on its own the job the big light boxes in studios do; it gives a soft, directional light from a wide surface. In this lesson we will learn how to read this light, where to put the subject relative to the window, and how to manage this light with a few household items.

Context

In the previous lessons you saw how the direction, hardness and color of light change a photo. A window is a ready laboratory inside your home for trying all of these, as long as the weather and the hour allow. Outside you can't move the sun; but at home you can move the subject closer to the window or further away, turn it, open and close the curtain and shape the light as you wish.

Window light is useful not only for portraits but also for food photos, a catalog shot of a small product, a still life or the leaf of a plant. Many professional product and food photographers still work in front of a single big window, because this light looks natural and takes nothing to set up. This lesson is the first rehearsal at home of the lighting setups you will learn later in studio lighting.

Simple explanation

What makes window light special?

A window carries light from the outside world into the room across a wide surface. If the sun isn't shining straight in, this light is scattered light from the sky and reflected from the buildings opposite, and the whole surface of the window behaves like a light source. A big source gives soft shadows; that is why the transition from light to shadow on the face of someone sitting next to a window is soft and gradual. Window light is also directional: it comes from a single side and gives shape to a face or an object.

The window orientation, the direction the window faces, decides the character of this light. In the northern hemisphere, a window facing north gets no direct sun for most of the day; its light is soft, balanced and slightly cool all day. This balance is also why north light was so often sought after in painters' studios. A window facing south, on the other hand, gets direct sun for a good part of the day; the light is hard and bright, but easily softened with a thin curtain. A window facing east gets a warm, low sun in the morning, and a window facing west in the evening.

Where do you put the subject relative to the window?

The angle at which the subject stands relative to the window decides the direction of the light. When the person turns their face toward the window, the face is bright and even; small reflections of the window appear in their eyes. These reflections are called catchlights, and they add life to a portrait. When the person turns half sideways to the window, one side of the face is bright and the other slides into a soft shadow, and the face gains volume. When the person stands fully sideways to the window, the face splits in two; when they turn their back to the window, backlight forms, the face stays in darkness and the edge of the hair glows.

The subject's distance from the window changes the light too. Right by the window, the light is both bright and very soft; as you move into the room, the light drops quickly. Next to a wide source like a window, this light falloff isn't as harsh as with a small lamp; but when you go a few steps in, the difference grows clearly. This has a useful side effect: if the subject is close to the window and the background is deep in the room, the background stays much darker than the subject, and the subject stands out in front of a dark background. A portrait with a wall far from the window behind it can look like a painting standing on a dark ground.

How do you manage window light?

You don't need expensive tools to manage window light. Because the light comes from one direction, the side opposite the window stays in shadow. To open up this shadow, you place a white card, a foam board or a stretched white bedsheet on the subject's shadow side. This surface reflects part of the window light back and works like a reflector. The closer you bring the reflector, the more the shadow opens; the further you move it, the deeper the shadow gets.

The opposite is possible too. If you want to deepen the shadows even more and get a more dramatic look, you place a black fabric or a dark board on the shadow side; it absorbs unwanted reflections from the room's white walls. If direct sun is shining in, a thin net curtain softens the light; if the light is spreading too much, you narrow it by drawing the curtain halfway.

A reflector is especially useful when photographing different skin tones. In window light, the shadow side of dark skin can deepen quickly and detail can be lost; a white reflector adds a soft light to this side and keeps the texture and depth of the skin. On light skin, the same reflector can wipe out the shadows more than needed and flatten the face; here, moving the reflector a little further away is enough. A catchlight adds life to the face on every skin; change the angle in small steps until you see the window's reflection in the person's eyes.

Visual evidence

Imagine photographing an old woman knitting twice, in a room with a wide window facing north. First the woman sits in the middle of the room, a few steps from the window. The light is weak and spread out; her face is pale, her eyes dull, and the color of the yarn on her lap has turned gray. The wall behind her is as bright as her face, and a bookcase, frames and a clock pull attention away.

Then you seat the woman right next to the window, turned half sideways to it, and on her shadow side you place a white foam board leaning against a chair. In the new frame, the side of her face toward the window glows with a soft light, and the other side is opened by the gentle light the board reflects. The wrinkles in her dark skin, the warm coffee tones on her cheeks and the catchlights of the window in her eyes can be made out. The red yarn on her lap has come alive, and the movement of her fingers on the needles is sharp. The wall behind her has darkened because it is now far from the window; the bookcase and frames have almost disappeared, and the woman stands out in front of a dark background. The same room, the same window; the difference is made by a few steps and a white board.

Common mistakes

Summary

A window is the free studio in your home: it gives soft, directional light from its wide surface, changes character through the day depending on the direction it faces, and drops off quickly into the room. By turning the subject relative to the window you choose the direction of the light, by moving it closer or further you choose its brightness and the darkness of the background, and with a white reflector you choose the depth of the shadows.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you turn the window in your home into a studio.

1. Choose a window in your home that gets daylight and note which direction it faces.
2. Take two frames of a volunteer or an object, placed first facing the window and then turned half sideways to it.
3. In the half-sideways frame, put a white card or bedsheet on the shadow side and take the same frame again.
4. Move the subject a few steps into the room and make one last try; add the four tries to your light journal.

Check yourself

• Were you able to observe how the direction the window faces affects the light?
• Were you able to see how much the reflector opened the shadow side?
• Did you notice how the light and the background changed when the subject moved away from the window?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. Why is window light soft?

• A) Because the glass colors the light
• B) Because light comes from the wide surface of the window, like a big source
• C) Because light always comes from above
• D) Because windows make light stronger

2. In the northern hemisphere, what is the light of a window facing north usually like?

• A) Without direct sun for most of the day, soft and balanced
• B) Sunny and hard all day
• C) Usable only in the evening
• D) Always orange

3. What happens if the subject is close to the window and the background is deep in the room?

• A) The background is brighter than the subject
• B) The subject and the background are lit equally
• C) The background stays much darker than the subject and the subject stands out
• D) The light disappears completely

4. If detail is being lost on the shadow side of a dark-skinned person, what do you do?

• A) Switch on a lamp of a different color next to them
• B) Move the person to the middle of the room
• C) Turn the person's back to the window
• D) Put a white reflector on the shadow side to reflect light back

Answers

1. B — Light comes scattered from the whole surface of the window; a big source gives soft shadows and gradual transitions.
2. A — In the northern hemisphere, a window facing north gets only the scattered light of the sky for most of the day; the light is soft, balanced and slightly cool.
3. C — Light drops quickly as it moves away from the window; when the subject is right by the window, the background gets much less light and a dark background forms.
4. D — A white reflector sends part of the window light back to the shadow side and keeps the texture of the skin; a lamp of a different color creates a two-colored look on the face.

Summary card

• Window = a wide, soft, directional light source; a free studio.
• A north window is soft and balanced, a south window sunny and hard.
• Move the subject closer to the window: the light brightens, the background darkens.
• Change the angle: facing, half sideways, fully sideways, back turned.
• A white reflector opens the shadow, a black fabric deepens it.

Bridge to the next lesson

While learning to manage window light, you kept trying to open, fill and soften the shadow. But shadow isn't always something to get rid of. The last lesson of the light module turns to the shadow itself and asks whether we need to be afraid of it. There you will see how shadow adds shape, depth and mystery to a photo.