Digital Photography and the Light

Photographers -  painters of light.
Ever noticed the light ?
I mean really noticed the light.
How it changes constantly, how it shifts and moves, comes and goes ever so slightly.
How it slides to one side then the next in a subtle dance of light.
Because our eyes adjust to the light shifts automatically and instantly we don't even really notice it until we start to take photographs.

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Ever start clicking and thinking you have the perfect shot and then take a look at the display to find you have a shadow over half of your photo that you didn't even spot when you took it ?

Digital will force you to take note !

You will suddenly become very aware of light shifts.

You  need to be if you don't want to find all your photos have come out in various shades and depths of stripes :)

Once you take note of it it becomes pretty obvious but just try this as an experiment:

• Place an object you want to photograph half in and half out of bright sunlight and click the shutter.
• Check your display screen

 

• What do you see ?
• You will notice your photo is separated into two distinct  halves, one very dark and one very light.
• Now try this adding another shade source, like a window pane or plant and see where the light and shade start and finish.
• Leave your subject in the same place and photograph it again in  half an  hour
• Take  another half hour later again and notice how the light has changed dramatically
• Go on, do it now - you can always delete them, who will ever know you have taken such lousy shots, half black and the other half looking like a ghost has just been blasted through it.

You will notice in the photos above that light plays a big part, good and bad !  The top photo shows the distortion where the camera is too close to the lens but the composition is good and the light and shadow improves the photo and the second photo is completely ruined by the fall of the shadow and you will also see the power lines in this photo.  OK, you can  edit them out but why go to all that effort when if you walk around to the other side and wait for the shadow to shift you can get a far better shot.

Now you have lift off - the importance of where the light source is and where it highlights is one of  the most important things to bear in mind  if you want amazing and incredible photos.

Ask yourself where you want the light to come from, where you want it to reflect on your subject, what you want to highlight and what you want to overshadow and you will find it makes a huge difference to your photographs.

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