As the water is essential for a swimmer, the light is the most important for a photographer, it's as simple as, no light, no picture. As a professional photographer you become more aware of the light sources and how to use it with it's full potential. I have read four articles about composing with light. In the first one, Composing with light, Part 1 , Alain Briot brings up several good points of how to work with light when you are offered different types of natural light sources. It points out several times that light is what is most important when we are photographing, "For a photographer the quality of the light is the one thing that can never be ignored. It is everything." light is what we have to adjust after and thinking of first, before deciding where to put the object in the picture. Light is basically what we first have to consider while composing a picture. In this article they claim that "light is composition". However, a great picture requires great light, and with the best light you'll get the best photograph. But even if you do have perfect light, you still need to be able to include object and elements in your composition. Finding the best light for your personal style is "both a matter of personal experience and knowledge and a matter of using the right tools." In the matter of experience, a photographer is going to notice that the light that we usually prefer is not always the best light for a photo session. The bad weather can actually be the best weather. "Bad weather is a tremendous help in our quest to find good light." A tip is to not stay in the house or your hotel room a rainy, cloudy or stormy day, wait until the storm is over, then go outside and capture the amazing sky. In some other pictures, it is the light that creates the composition.
To get the right light is also to know when and where the sun is going to be and where it should be so you can get a great picture out of it. There is many application's to help you knowing where and when you can get the best sunlight. In part 2 of this article Briot talks about just that. For example you can use a compass, the old farmers almanac, a gps, Focalware (iPhone app), or a downloadable full-fledged astronomical software Equinox 6. In this article you can find several links to websites that offers features of where sunrise and sunset will appear at what time. However, there is so much more than just learning about the sun, since the sky also include "clouds, haze lightning, rain, rainbows, snow and snowstorms, reflections, sun stars, star trails, halos, light shafts, rims of light, comets and other astronomical events as well as a myriad of other lighting conditions." After reading this section and by looking at the pictures it struck me how different a photograph appears with different natural light sources, an image of the same object with the camera at the same exact spot at different times of the day differs a lot. Something boring can all of a sudden become really amazing in the photo if the light is right and vice versa. With help from light you can also find various things to make the image better, example of that is reflection in water, silhouettes, and different patterns shaped from shade.
This article helps you understand more about light and how you can best use the natural light sources. In Part 3 and 4 you can find the pictures where Briot shows similar pictures with different light sources, as I said before, it's really cool to see the differences. When he compared places from sunrise to dusk or to sunset I think that I like the ones taken at dusk better. The light is much softer and nothing in the picture really stands out as a distraction from the sun brightening up parts in the landscape as in the pictures taken at sunset. However, the pictures taking in at sunrise gives an effect that makes the light look warmer and cooler (more cool). I have never really felt like getting up at dawn to take pictures, but after reading this article it makes me wanna explore the light more and even set my alarm clock at a time that is otherwise far too early..
Composing with light article:
No comments:
Post a Comment