8 creative ways to use window light

I have a window in my house that I’ve fallen hard for.

It’s a bay window in our family room.

It has unfinished casing, chipped paint on the ledge, and is incredibly cold in the winter, but it still doesn’t stop me from loving it. It faces west out to our backyard, and lets me look out at the field behind us, the downtown skyline, and my daughter playing outside in her play house.

Above all of that though, it just lets some seriously gorgeous light into our house. It’s a photographers dream.

You might not have a bay window like this in your house, but these same principles can be applied to so many types of windows. Take some time to study the light and how it moves through your house during the day and I’m sure you’ll find creative ways to use your special window too.

1. Frame it

My window happens to be square, but even if yours isn’t, you can still use it as a frame. Think of the casing, the grid in the window (also known as the muntins), the baseboards below and the ceiling above – they all need to be taken into consideration when setting up your shot. I like to experiment where I place my subject, but one of my favourites is to center the window and then have my subject off-center within the window.  You can also try using half of your window as frame and then center your subject as in the second example below.

2. Partial silhouette

Partial silhouettes tend to work best on an overcast day. If it’s too sunny outside and you expose for the landscape outside, there’s the potential that you will lose all detail in your subject’s face.  Expose for what’s outside your window. You want to keep that detail, while still maintaining some light on your subject’s face. I love that my window brings enough light to allow a bit of light to fall on the floor so that feet aren’t lost in the shadows.

3. Use the ledge

I often use the window seat as a backdrop. It’s white and is well lit, so it works well for all sorts of still life shots. Even if you don’t have a window seat, if you have a floor length window you can achieve the same effect by using the floor, or even putting down a few floor boards or some fabric to make a little backdrop for yourself.

4. Ambient light

This might seem like an obvious one, but sometimes it’s the one I forget the most. I’m so busy thinking of how I can incorporate this awesome window into my shots that I forget to just leave it out of the frame completely and simply use all the light it lets in. If I don’t want shadows from the window itself (see #5 below), I find it’s best to shoot midday. The sun isn’t fully shining in yet, but it’s not dark like in the morning (as this window faces due west). In both the shots below, I have my left shoulder to the window and I am facing the wall to the right of the window with my subjects about 3 feet away from the wall.