Awareness of the light

Awareness of the light

Light is the photographer’s brush. It is how the subject is rendered in a physical sense, but more importantly, it is a significant tool in how char- acter is imparted in a portrait.

“Photography is about light. The way light wraps a moment, the way it paints an emotion. Light shapes our perception and defines our world. Light creates the shadows that hide what needs to be hidden. Light reveals. Light illuminates.” — Bruce Dorn; Exploring Light DVD

Asking Yourself Three Simple Questions

This approach to seeing is based on asking yourself three simple questions:

 

Where is the light coming from?

What is the quality of the light?

How much light do I have to work with?

 

These questions are important because they open up your eyes not only to how the light impacts your subject, but also to what controls or features of your camera you need to adjust in order produce a successful image.

 

1. Light source

Awareness of where the light is coming from—both its source and its direc- tion—informs the settings you’ll use on your camera to achieve the best expo- sure. It also leads you to choose where to position your subject and/or your camera in relation to that light. As you begin to see where the light is coming from, you train your eye to analyze how many different types of light there are and how light is transformed when it comes into contact with different objects (for example, when it’s reflected off the surface of a large, white wall).

2. Quality of Light

Once you know where the light is coming from, you can begin to analyze its physical qualities. I f the light is coming from the bare midday sun, you see the harsh, deep shadows it produces on the opposite side of the subject and other elements in the frame. On an overcast day, that same sun is filtered through clouds, creating a more diffused quality of light, which softens the shadows and reduces the contrast between light and dark. If the light source is a candle, the light is not only soft, but very warm in color—markedly different from the light produced by the camera’s built-in flash, which has a harsher quality.

 

3. Amount of Light

This question is crucial, because it determines your ability to pull off a well- exposed and sharp photograph. On a bright day, you have an abundance of light to work with, which means you have a wealth of options when it comes to the combinations of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO that you can use. In a low-light situation (at dusk, for example), those options are more limited, and you have to make compromises—for example, using a slower shutter speed and sacrificing sharpness and/or using a wider aperture and sacrificing depth of field.

 

reference:

EXISTING LIGHT TECHNIQUES for Wedding and Portrait Photography, p.10; by Bill Hurter

CHASING THE LIGHT: Improving your Phototgrapy with Available Light, p.p. 6-7; by Ibarionex Perello