‘There is no such thing as bad light’- Nigel Danson
In October, when I started photography, light consisted of, well, light and dark. And grey, I was very aware of grey. My sum knowledge of light and photography was to keep the sun behind me. That should do the trick!
As I began to explore the world of photography I quickly became aware light is everything. Which means a lot of learning. It will take some years to master light and know how to shoot dependent on the quality of light available.
Still more often than I would like, when I check my images many are underexposed. We have had innumerable grey winter days for sure, but of course that is not why my images are underexposed. It is not enough to know where the light is, how it shines (or not) on the subject. It is setting the camera up correctly to manage this light.
It has been fascinating watching You Tube videos of portrait photographers and how they use light in the studio. This is not an area of interest for me at present, but it does serve to demonstrate how light can be used to create particular affects.
The most obvious real world lessons for me in using light have been at dawn and dusk. My efforts have been pretty much awful; however this is how I am going to learn. I have tried diving in at the deep end and taken low light shots in manual mode, and realise I need to stick to Aperture priority for now , and keep examining both the good shots and the “learnings” to see where the camera sets shutter speed for example.
What I have grasped is the need to not be afraid to bump up ISO beyond 100, and to not be afraid to use slower shutter speeds.
Roman Fox in his excellent You Tube video A lesson in Light
explains how understanding the source of light helps to create separation from the subject and the background, so reducing images that appear to be flat and two dimensional. It is this level of detail that is so new for me and fascinating. Physics and art.
One of the lovely outcomes of starting photography is how differently I look at the world around me in any given moment. Particularly noticing light. How strong is it, what quality is it, and what direction is it coming from, what is being illuminated? Where is the sun right now? And like any good Psychiatric Nurse, I am also noticing the shadows, the darker places, and the relationship with both!
With Winter about to finally move into Spring I am looking forward to working with different light. So far, having started photography in October, I have experienced very few bright days here on the West Coast of BC. Most days have been grey and cloudy. And cold. And wet. With snow! Of course this will bring more challenges, more to learn, but I cannot wait.
Then there is Exposure Compensation…………….but I think I will leave that for another day!
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