Lesson 01
Reading the light
See direction, quality and color before you lift the camera.
f/8, 1/250, ISO 100
A field guide by Theo Lindqvist
Chase the light.
Keep the shot.
Eleven lessons on reading, planning and editing natural light, so your photos finally look the way the moment felt.
- Lessons
- 11
- Pages
- 240
- Presets
- 16
85mm, f/2.8, 1/500, ISO 100
Golden
Hour
A field guide to shooting in natural light
Theo Lindqvist
f/2.8 1/500
Lesson one in a glance
A day of light
Sample times for a June day in southern Sweden. The guide shows you how to plan any day, anywhere.
05:40
Blue hour
Cool, even, quiet
06:10
Golden hour
Low, warm, long shadows
12:00
Midday
Hard, high contrast
19:20
Golden hour
Soft gold, glowing edges
19:55
Blue hour
Deep color, city lights
Before and after
Same light. Different photo.
Drag the handle to see what six simple editing steps from lesson seven do to a flat, straight-out-of-camera frame.
Inside the guide
Eleven lessons from first light to last
Lesson 02
Backlight without fear
Glowing hair, flare on purpose and faces that still hold detail.
f/2.8, 1/500, ISO 100
Lesson 03
Shadows are subjects
Use long evening shadows to shape and simplify a frame.
f/5.6, 1/320, ISO 200
Lesson 05
Mist and soft light
Find atmosphere in fog, haze and overcast mornings.
f/11, 1/60, ISO 100
Lesson 07
Editing for warmth
A simple grading recipe that keeps skin tones natural.
Lightroom, 6 steps
Lesson 09
The blue hour
Long exposures and cool tones in the twenty minutes after sunset.
f/8, 8 sec, ISO 100
Readers
Seen in a new light
I have owned a good camera for six years. This is the first time my photos look the way the moment felt.
Isabel Moreau
Hobbyist, Lyon
The light planning sheets live in my camera bag now. My clients have noticed the difference.
Kwame Asante
Wedding photographer
Clear, beautiful and practical. Lesson two alone changed how I shoot portraits.
Nina Ekberg
Portrait photographer
Pricing
Pick your kit
Field guide
Every lesson, every diagram, every settings card.
$25
- 11 lessons, 240 pages
- Light planning cheat sheets
- PDF and EPUB files
Full kit
Guide and presets
The guide plus the edits behind every photo.
$45
- Everything in the field guide
- 16 Lightroom presets
- Raw practice files from the book
Questions
Do I need an expensive camera?
No. Every lesson works with any camera that lets you set exposure manually, and most of it works on a phone too.
Which editing apps do the presets work with?
The presets are made for Lightroom on desktop and mobile. The editing lessons explain the settings so you can recreate them anywhere.
Is this for beginners?
It is best if you know the basics of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. A two-page refresher is included at the start.
What are the raw practice files?
Twenty original raw photos from the book, so you can follow every editing lesson step by step with the same images.
Start shooting
Your first lesson is free
Get Reading the light free, or choose your kit and we will email you a secure payment link.