Top 11 'At-Home-Studio' Photo Challenges to try for beginners to master natural window light - Goh Ling Yong
Hey there, future photography pro! Do you ever scroll through your favorite photo feeds, mesmerized by those stunning, light-filled images, and think, "I could never do that without a fancy studio and a trunk full of expensive lights"? It's a common feeling, but I'm here to let you in on a little secret: the most powerful, versatile, and beautiful light source you'll ever need is probably streaming into your room right now.
That's right, I'm talking about your window. Mastering natural window light is the single most important skill that separates amateur snapshots from professional-quality photographs. It teaches you to see, shape, and control light—the very essence of photography. Forget the complicated gear for a moment. Your home, a window, and your camera are all you need to build a foundation that will serve you for your entire creative journey.
Here at the Goh Ling Yong blog, we believe that the best way to learn is by doing. So, I've put together 11 simple, fun, and transformative "at-home-studio" challenges. Each one is designed to teach you a core principle of lighting using only a window. Grab your camera (even your phone will do!), find a window, and let's turn your home into the ultimate photography classroom.
1. The Single Object Study: Your Light-Tracking Mission
The first step to mastering light is learning to observe it. This challenge is less about creating a masterpiece and more about becoming a student of the sun. The goal is to see how dramatically the quality, direction, and color of light change throughout the day.
Pick a simple, three-dimensional object. An apple, a coffee mug, a textured vase, or even a crumpled piece of paper will work perfectly. Place it on a neutral surface (like a small table or a piece of cardboard) near a window that gets a good amount of light. Now, your mission is to photograph this object three times during the day: once in the morning (around 9 AM), once at midday (around noon), and once in the late afternoon (around 4 PM).
Keep your camera settings and position as consistent as possible. Afterward, compare the images side-by-side. Notice the long, soft shadows of the morning light. See how the harsh, direct overhead light at noon can flatten the object and create short, dark shadows. Feel the warm, golden glow and the long, dramatic shadows of the afternoon. This simple exercise will train your eye to recognize different types of light and know instinctively when the light is right for the mood you want to create.
2. The "Hard vs. Soft Light" Showdown
Not all window light is created equal. This challenge will teach you the fundamental difference between hard light and soft light, and more importantly, how to create both. Hard light (from direct, unfiltered sun) creates sharp, well-defined shadows and high contrast. Soft light (from an overcast day or diffused sun) creates gentle, feathered shadows and a lower-contrast, flattering look.
For this experiment, you'll need a subject (a person or a textured object) and a "diffuser." You don't need a professional one; a thin, white bedsheet or a piece of sheer curtain fabric is perfect. First, place your subject in the path of direct sunlight streaming through your window. Take a photo. Notice the crisp, dark shadow lines. This is hard light.
Now, hang your white sheet over the inside of the window, effectively turning the entire window into a giant softbox. Place your subject in the exact same spot and take another photo. Compare the two images. The second photo will have beautiful, soft, wrapping light with gentle shadows. You’ve just learned how to tame the sun and create flattering light on demand.
3. The Classic Rembrandt Portrait
Ready to get a little artistic? This challenge uses a single window to recreate one of the most famous lighting patterns in art history: Rembrandt lighting. Named after the painter who mastered it, this technique creates a small, inverted triangle of light on the cheek of your subject that is on the less-illuminated side of the face. It's dramatic, moody, and surprisingly easy to achieve.
Have your subject (a friend, a family member, or yourself for a self-portrait) sit near a window. Position them so the window is about 45 degrees to one side of their face. The key is that the light source should be slightly above their eye level. As they turn their head slightly away from the window, watch the shadows.
You’re looking for that signature triangle of light to appear on their far cheek. It shouldn't be wider than their eye or longer than their nose. You may need to adjust their position or the angle of their head. This challenge forces you to pay close attention to the subtle play of light and shadow across a face, a skill essential for any portrait photographer.
4. The Mood Swing: High Key & Low Key
This challenge is all about controlling the mood of your image. You'll take the same still life setup and shoot it in two completely different styles: High Key and Low Key. High Key images are bright, airy, and have very few dark shadows, conveying a sense of happiness and openness. Low Key images are dark, dramatic, and full of deep shadows, creating a sense of moodiness and mystery.
First, set up a simple still life—a few pieces of fruit in a bowl or a teapot and cup. For the High Key shot, place your setup on a white surface with a white background (a piece of white poster board works great). Make sure the scene is brightly lit by your window, and use another piece of white board on the shadow side to bounce light back and fill in any dark areas. Expose your photo so the whites are bright but not blown out.
For the Low Key shot, swap your background and surface for something dark, like black fabric or a black poster board. This time, you want to control the light, not fill it. You might need to partially cover your window (a technique called "flagging") to create a smaller, more focused beam of light that only hits your subject, leaving the background to fall into darkness. This exercise proves that mood is all in the lighting.
5. Master the Dramatic Silhouette
A silhouette tells a story with shape alone. It’s a powerful compositional tool that strips away color and texture, leaving only the pure form of your subject. And the best way to create one is by using a bright window as your backdrop.
For this challenge, find a subject with a clear and recognizable shape. A person's profile, a houseplant with interesting leaves, or a shapely vase are all excellent choices. Place your subject directly in front of your brightest window. The key to a great silhouette is your camera's exposure. You need to tell your camera to expose for the bright background, not your subject.
Most cameras and phones will let you tap on the screen or use a spot meter to choose your point of focus and exposure. Point it at the bright sky or building outside the window. The camera will adjust its settings for that brightness, automatically plunging your subject in the foreground into a deep, dark shadow. The result? A crisp, powerful silhouette against a perfectly exposed background.
6. Become a Light Bender: The Reflector Challenge
Professional photographers are obsessed with reflectors for a reason: they are simple, cheap, and incredibly effective tools for shaping light. This challenge will show you how to "bend" window light to your will, filling in ugly shadows and adding a professional sparkle to your subject.
You don't need to buy anything. Your reflector can be a piece of white foam core, a large sheet of white paper, or even a sunshade for a car's windshield (use the silver side for a punchier, cooler light or the white side for a softer fill).
Set up a subject—a portrait or a still life—so that it's lit from one side by your window. You'll notice one side is beautifully lit, while the other is in deep shadow. Take a "before" shot. Now, hold your DIY reflector on the shadow side of your subject. Angle it so that it catches the light from the window and bounces it back into the shadows. You'll literally see the shadows soften and brighten before your eyes. Take an "after" shot. The difference will be astounding.
7. The Texture Explorer
One of the most beautiful qualities of directional window light is its ability to reveal texture. When light skims across a surface from a low angle, it creates tiny highlights and shadows that bring every little detail to life. This challenge is about hunting for texture and capturing it.
Look around your home for interesting surfaces. A chunky knit sweater, a piece of old wood, the craggy crust of a loaf of bread, a crumpled piece of aluminum foil, or the veins on a leaf. The possibilities are endless.
Position your chosen object so your window light is "raking" across it from the side. Get your camera in close (use a macro mode if you have one) and focus on the details. Play with the angle of the light and your camera to see how it changes the appearance of the texture. Converting these images to black and white can often enhance the effect, removing the distraction of color and focusing the viewer's eye on form and detail.
8. The Glassware & Liquid Light Challenge
Photographing glass and liquids can be tricky, but it's an incredibly rewarding exercise in controlling reflections and highlights. This challenge is about making transparent objects look solid and three-dimensional by capturing the way light interacts with them.
Gather a few interesting glasses, a bottle, or a vase. Fill one with water. For the best results, place your setup on a dark surface in front of your window, but slightly to the side. The secret here is often backlighting or side-lighting. When light comes from behind the glass, it passes through it, making the edges glow and highlighting the shape of the object and the liquid inside.
The goal isn't to eliminate reflections, but to control them. Notice how the shape of the window is reflected in the glass. You can use a black card (called a "negative fill") to the side or in front of the glass to create dark, defining lines on the edges, which helps to give the transparent object a sense of form and substance.
9. The "Golden Hour, Blue Hour" Indoor Study
We all know about the "golden hour" for outdoor photography, but did you know the color of light changes just as dramatically indoors? Natural light has a "color temperature," which shifts from cool and blue in the early morning to neutral at midday, and finally to warm and golden in the late afternoon. This challenge makes this phenomenon visible.
To do this properly, you need to give your camera a single point of reference. Set your camera's White Balance to a fixed preset, like "Daylight" or "Sunny" (don't use Auto White Balance, as it will try to correct the color changes you're trying to capture). Find a perfectly neutral subject, like a white egg on a white plate.
Place your subject near the window and take a photo first thing in the morning, again at noon, and finally just before sunset. When you compare the photos, you'll see a clear progression. The morning shot will have a cool, blueish cast. The noon shot will be relatively neutral. The sunset shot will be bathed in a warm, golden-orange light. Understanding this helps you choose the right time of day to shoot to evoke a specific feeling.
10. The Sculpting with Shadows: Fabric Folds
Artists have been studying the way light falls on draped fabric for centuries, and for good reason. It’s a perfect subject for learning about highlights, midtones, and shadows, and how they work together to create a sense of depth and form. This challenge is about sculpting with light.
Take a piece of fabric—a bedsheet, a towel, or a t-shirt will do—and drape it over the back of a chair near your window. Don't just lay it flat; create interesting folds, peaks, and valleys.
The key is to use strong side-lighting. Position the chair so the window light rakes across the fabric, casting deep, defined shadows inside the folds. Move around the subject and observe how the shapes change from different angles. This exercise is fantastic practice for seeing in terms of tone rather than just subject matter. A trick I've learned from my own work, much like the detailed environmental portraits seen in Goh Ling Yong's portfolio, is that converting these shots to black and white can reveal the pure sculptural beauty of the light.
11. The Moody Food & Backlight Magic
If you've ever drooled over a food photo that looked dark, atmospheric, and delicious, chances are it was shot using backlighting from a single window. Backlighting is a food photographer's secret weapon. It creates a beautiful rim of light around the subject, highlights steam rising from a hot dish, and makes textures like crumbs and drips look irresistible.
For this final challenge, prepare a simple plate of food. A slice of dark-crust pie, a rustic bowl of soup, a stack of pancakes, or a steaming cup of coffee are all great subjects. Place your dish on a surface with the window directly behind it. Your camera will be facing the window.
This will naturally want to create a silhouette, so you'll need to do two things. First, use your reflector from Challenge #6 to bounce a little light back onto the front of the food so it's not completely dark. Just a touch is all you need. Second, use your camera's exposure compensation to brighten the image slightly until you can see the details in the food. The background might get very bright, but that's okay. The focus is the beautifully rim-lit, mouth-watering food in front of you.
Your Studio Awaits
There you have it—11 challenges to completely transform your understanding and use of natural light. The best part? You can do every single one of them this week without leaving your home. Your living room, your bedroom, your kitchen—these are your new studios.
Don't worry about getting a perfect shot every time. The goal of these exercises is to practice, experiment, and, most importantly, to learn how to see light. Once you understand how to find, modify, and shape the light from a simple window, you'll be able to create beautiful images anywhere, with any kind of gear.
Now it's your turn. Pick one of these challenges that excites you the most and give it a try. I'd love to see what you create! Share your results on Instagram, tag us, and use the hashtag #GLYWindowLightChallenge so we can feature your work.
Which challenge are you going to try first? Let me know in the comments below!
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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