How to work with

natural Light
in Food Photography
practical guide

WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 Welcome!
My name is Lucia, I am a food photographer,
teacher and founder of Healthy Goodies by
Lucia and of the Members' Club, which is an
interactive online learning community for food
photographers from all over the world.
I have been using natural light in my images
for more than 2 years, and even if it's beautiful
and I love it, it's also very unstable and hard to
work with.
I strongly believe that everyone starting with
food photography, should learn how to use the
natural light, before using artificial lighting.
Mini Guide - How to work with Natural Light in Food Photography
The principles of lighting are the same , and
you can apply them when working with
natural or artificial light as well. Once, you
know how to manipulate light properly, you
are able to work with both of them.
We cover the Lighting Principles in our
Members' Club, in one of the food
photography courses.
In this guide, I show you how to work with
natural light in practice, so you can try these
techniques and implement them into your
images.
You can connect with me on Instagram if
you have any questions, I am here to help.
With love,
Lucia
| WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 How to manipulate light to create bright

What you and airy image

how to create dark and moody image
how to create bright and moody

will learn
how to create an image using hard light
what tools to use to manipulate light, that
you most probably have at home already

What you find here:

Behind the scenes - Bright & Airy Page 4
1

Behind the scenes - Dark & Moody Page 5

2

Behind the scenes - Bright& Moody Page 6

3

Behind the scenes - Hard light Page 7

4

Tools to manipulate light Page 8

5

Learning more about lighting Page 9

6

Mini Guide - How to work with Natural Light in Food Photography | WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 Behind the
1 scenes -
Bright & Airy

1. First, I positioned my scene in front of the balcony

door, so I had a lot of light coming in the room. The
larger the light source, the brighter the image will be.

For this shot I used the backlight, to show the beautiful

texture of the chia pudding and peaches.

2. As you see, I didn't use the diffuser, because the

light coming through the balcony door is soft and
diffused. This is the window on the north side of my
house (without the direct sunlight). If I shoot at the
window with direct sunlight, I use the diffuser or
curtain to make the light softer.

3. To create bright & airy, the fill light is very important.

When you shoot in a room with white walls, there is
already a lot of fill light happening, so you don't need
to use any reflectors to bring the light back.

But, if you are in a room with less

light, I recommend using white
boards to bounce the light back to
the scene. This way you can create
beautiful airy feeling.

4. You can see a certain amount of

shadows in my final image. It's also
important to keep some shadows,
even if the image is bright and airy.
Shadows help you add the depth
and the three-dimensional effect in
your images. Page 3

Mini Guide - How to work with Natural Light in Food Photography | WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 Behind the
2 scenes -
Dark & Moody

1. When I wanted to create this image, I didn't need

so much light in the scene. You can see the huge
window that allowed a lot of light enter the room.
Therefore, the first thing I had to do was to decrease
the amount of light by lowering the external blinds (1).

I lowered the blinds just a bit, but it already gave me

the mood I was looking for.

2. Because my window was too large, I also had to

block the extra light. By blocking it, I created the
shadows in front of the croissants. (2)

3. I also used the curtain to block the light coming to

the back of the scene. (3)
I positioned the curtain right behind the croissants.
Even if I used the white props in the background, the
curtain managed to block the light, so they are not so
visible. Otherwise they would take too much attention
from the main subject.

4. I used a diffuser with black cover on, which I placed

to the background. The black cover served also for a
negative fill, so it blocked the light reflecting from the
walls.

Additionally, you
can also use the
black board on the
left side of the
scene (opposite
side of the
window), so you
create negative fill
and make sure
your shadows are
nice and rich.
Page 3

Mini Guide - How to work with Natural Light in Food Photography | WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 Behind the scenes
3 Bright & Moody

Bright and moody is something in between the

bright and dark. I love creating brighter images,
that have that beautiful and rich shadows. It helps
me create the depth in the photos.

It's not difficult to create these types of images, as

what you need is a larger or smaller window, and
then, you will use black cards and position them
around the subject, so you can create rich
shadows.

By using black cards, you make sure the light is

not reflected back to the scene. This is why the
shadows are so beautiful and strong.

Page 3

Mini Guide - How to work with Natural Light in Food Photography | WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 Behind the
5 scenes -
Hard Light

1. To create an image with hard light, you need

direct sunlight.
2. You don't need to use the diffusers or block the
light. You can use hard light coming directly
thought the glass (of the window), or you can
also open the window, or shoot directly outside.
3. Hard light is considered as ideal lighting
condition, therefore you can keep your ISO at
100, so you get a better quality image. Then,
you can play with adjusting the shutter speed
and the f-stop number. Don't be afraid to
increase the shutter speed to 1/2000 as well.
Important is that your image is ideally exposed,
and you don't overexpose or underexpose.

Page 3

Mini Guide - How to work with Natural Light in Food Photography | WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 Tools to manipulate light to create
different moods

north window
The light source - When I use natural light, my light
source is a window or a diffuser. South windows give
me a lot of light, which or I defuse or I shoot with hard
light.
But, I don't use the diffuser when shooting at the
window facing north. The light is already beautiful and
diffused.

Diffusers - can be anything that is white and

south
transparent. Homemade solutions can be white baking
paper, white curtains, white sheets. Practically, you
place them on your window and that allows light to

window
come through. There are also many options for a cheap
diffuser on internet,
I paid for my diffuser about 40 euro (the large one you
see in the BTS image)

Reflector - white cards - help you bring light back to your scene. As I mentioned before, white walls reflect
a lot of light already. Additionally, you can use aluminum foil, mirrors, polystyrene, car sun protector. Or,
just have a walk to some DIY store, where you can get simple white cards, which you can fold and place on
your scene. (see my image below). Make sure diffuser you use is white, otherwise it causes the color cast in
your image.
 
Black cards for a negative fill -  they help you block the light, and not to be bounced back to your scene .
You can use blinds on windows, black sheets,  clothes, covers, black papers, black foam cards from DIY
stores, baking trays. 

These are the white and

black cards I have at home.

I got them from a DIY

store, and I think the bigger
one was about 4 euros.

Also consider, when

buying them, 1 card is not
enough.

For creating dark images,

you will need more of them
of a different size as well.

Mini Guide - How to work with Natural Light in Food Photography | WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 Want to learn more about
lighting?
Online course
Principles of Lighting
in Food Photography
No matter if you shoot with natural, or
artificial lighting. The principles are still the
same. In this course, you will learn
everything you need to know about the
light, so you can work confidently with
natural or artificial lighting, to create
stunning images.

Moreover, you will have a chance to see

Lucie Beck working with light in her studio
while creating stunning images.

This course is for beginners and advanced

food photographers.

READ MORE ABOUT

THE MEMBERS'
CLUB
Online workshop
Natural light
in food photography
Join me live to see the behind the scenes of
working with natural light and creating a gif
for Instagram.

This is live workshop in our Members' Club,

that will happen in August. I will create and
style the scene using natural light. I will also
show you how to shoot images for gif and
how to put them together in photoshop
after.
This workshop is available only for the
members of our Members' Club.

Mini Guide - How to work with Natural Light in Food Photography | WWW.HEALTHYGOODIESBYLUCIA.COM
 Mini Guide - How to work with Light in
Food Photography

Hope you liked it!

Let me know if you have any questions!

You can write me on Instagram
@healthygoodiesbylucia or via email
at lucia@healthygoodiesbylucia.com

I will be also very grateful if you help me

spread a word about my this guide with
someone who might find it helpful too.

Thank you for your love and support!

Lucia

www.healthygoodiesbylucia.com
www.luciamarecak.com
Instagram @healthygoodiesbylucia