Window Light

Window light offers a complementary blend of the strengths of direct sunlight and open shade. Its directional quality helps produce shadows that can add depth and texture to a subject, while at the same time delivering a soft quality of light, which is ideal for many subjects, particularly people. Because the light is often coming from a single direction, you have the ability to create dramatically different looks, largely by changing the placement of the subject relative to the window.

Identifying the benefit of directional light

Next to open shade, I love using window light for portraits. It’s the kind of light that has some of the qualities of direct sunlight (brightness and direction) and open shade (diffusion). It’s a classic light source for photographers shopping for a studio—amazing images can be produced easily without the need to set up strobes and modifiers.