Chapter 4. See the Light

Understanding the Properties of Light and How to Use It

Understanding light is one of the most important skills in photography, but it’s also one of the most overlooked subjects. After all, light touches on every aspect of exposure, from ISO to lens aperture to shutter speed to white balance. It doesn’t matter if you are working with natural or artificial light; in order to get great images, you need to have a basic understanding of not only the characteristics of light, but also how to take advantage of them.

Poring Over the Picture

Sometimes you just get a feeling that it’s going to be one of those special shooting days, even before you take your camera out of the bag. That’s the way I felt as my buddies, Scott and Dave, and I drove through the darkness of the Utah morning, making our way to the Monument Valley entrance. The sun had not quite risen but there was already an indication that the skies were going to be very favorable for us that morning. Even as the morning progressed, the late summer sun just seemed to hang low in the horizon and provided us with spectacular light for our photos.

Poring Over the Picture

With a couple of plane changes along the way, traveling to Malaysia took quite some time. One of these plane changes took place at the Singapore airport and included a very long layover. Instead of just finding some seat to crash in, I decided to take my camera and explore some of the great sites inside the airport, such as the orchid gardens. I came away with some great flower pics that I had never planned on capturing. It just goes to show that you should always keep your camera near and your options open.

Types of Light

Before we start trying to use the light, we should take a look at the various types of light that you will deal with when making images. Knowing the type of light will help you control your white balance, but it will also give you an indication of the quality of the light.

Daylight

Because the sun passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, you will find that daylight can be one of the most varied light sources you ever encounter. It can range in color temperature and intensity based on several factors. First off, there is the time of day that you are taking the photos; the color of light is very different at sunrise than it is at mid-day. There is also a difference in the intensity of the light. Mid-day sun can be very harsh, creating hard-edged shadows (Figure 4.1). The shadows that occur after sunrise and before sunset are usually longer and add more definition, especially to a landscape (Figure 4.2).

Figure 4.1. The mid-day sun can be some of the harshest and most direct light to shoot in, but sometimes it is your only option.

Figure 4.2. Sunrise, with the light coming in low from the horizon, provides some beautiful light across the landscape.

This can also lead to extreme exposure variances between light and dark areas. This is known as contrast. Having a lot of contrast means that you will often have to compromise your exposure in some way or another. If you shoot just before sunrise or just after sunset, you can capture beautiful light without all the really dark shadows (Figure 4.3).

Figure 4.3. The long shadows and warm light of sunset help add depth to the scene.

One of my favorite times to shoot outdoors is during overcast conditions. Actually, let me clarify. If I am shooting landscape images that will include the sky, overcast is not my favorite, but if I’m shooting a portrait or anything else during the day, it will most likely look better under a little cloud cover. This is because the cloud layer is acting like a large diffuser, which spreads out the sunlight and produces much softer shadows and less contrast in the image (Figure 4.4).

Figure 4.4. An overcast sky will help to soften shadows.

Fluorescent

With more and more people turning from wasteful incandescent light bulbs to the more energy-efficient fluorescent option, it is more likely than not that you will be shooting under this light source. It used to be that fluorescent bulbs would give off a cool, greenish color cast but now you can find fluorescent bulbs that are balanced for daylight for the home or even for use in a photo studio. As a light source in general, fluorescent bulbs are not that bad to shoot with. They offer a nice bright light that is fairly diffuse, which means lower contrast (Figure 4.5). The one thing you will want to do when using them is to either use the Fluorescent white balance setting on your camera or create a custom white balance setting. Creating a custom white balance is probably the best approach, because the color temperature of the bulb can vary greatly depending on whether or not it is daylight-balanced.

Figure 4.5. With the proper white balance, you can get some nice, even lighting from a fluorescent light source.

Incandescent

When shooting under incandescent lighting, you will find that the light has an orange-yellow color cast. It can also be a much harsher light source since most of the light is emanating from a small point (the bulb). Of course, shooting with the correct white balance is the easiest way to overcome the color issues. Just be sure to preview your results (Figure 4.6).

Figure 4.6. Notice the warm orange color cast on the left that comes from the incandescent lighting. By selecting a Tungsten white balance I was able to capture more accurate colors in the rock formations.

Flash

We will cover flash more extensively in Chapter 8, but I think it’s important to mention here. Flash can be a photographer’s best friend because it is a reliable, predictable, controllable light source that is very close in color temperature to daylight. This means that it can be used to fill in shadows while shooting in daylight conditions without worrying about mixing different color temperatures. The same can’t be said for most of the other artificial light sources (with the exception of daylight-balanced fluorescents).

Flash can also be made to take on different characteristics, which can make the quality of light either very harsh and contrasty, or very soft and flat. This can be done through the use of diffusion materials or other methods to create a larger apparent light source (such as shooting your flash through a diffuser or a softbox). You can also color the light coming from a flash using gels, which allows you to match another light source’s color or create a special effect (Figure 4.7).

Figure 4.7. A flash fired through a softbox close to the subject provides the main light for this image. Another flash is used to provide “fill light,” which lightens the shadows on the left side of his face. Finally, a small flash with a blue gel is used to illuminate the background.

Quality of Light

When speaking about the quality of any particular light, we usually talk in terms of “hard light”—which usually is coming from a small, single spot or source—and “soft light,” which is more diffuse and seems to come from multiple directions.

Hard Light

Examples of hard light might be the sun, which is a small light source that creates hard light and shadows, or a flash that is pointed directly at your subject without passing through any diffusion material. Hard light is usually very directional and, due to this fact, the shadows that are created by it are very hard-edged. Another characteristic of hard light is that there are very few midtone values separating the highlights from the shadows (Figure 4.8).

Figure 4.8. Mid-day sun is a perfect example of hard, directional light that creates dark shadows and lots of contrast.

Soft Light

An overcast day is a perfect example of soft light, where the sun has to penetrate through a cloud layer. The cloud is spreading the light, making it come from multiple angles instead of a small, single point. This is also called diffusion; the light spreads out and creates much softer shadows. (It may actually appear to eliminate shadows altogether.) It also helps to create much more defined midtones because there is a smoother transition from the bright to dark areas (Figure 4.9).

Figure 4.9. An overcast sky creates a soft, multi-directional light that creates a lot of smooth tones and no hard-edged shadows.

Direction of Light

Light not only has the characteristics of being harder or softer, diffuse or sharp, but it also has a directional quality that you can use to enhance or your subject and, therefore, your images. There are typically three directions that we look at when discussing the direction of light.

Front Lighting

Front lighting typically comes from a source that is behind the photographer and shining directly onto the subject. One of the characteristics of this type of lighting is that it tends to flatten out your subject. It’s kind of like putting your subject on a copy machine where everything is evenly illuminated. It does, however, offer a very well lit and defined subject (Figure 4.10).

Figure 4.10. When the light is coming from directly in front of the subject, there is less shadow and a flattening of details.

Side Lighting

If you really want to define the three-dimensional characteristics of your subject, the best possible light to use as a main light is side lighting. Side lighting will enhance any contour detail by creating shadows and highlights, giving a three-dimensional quality to the scene. This is why a lot of portrait lighting or landscape lighting is done with the light coming from a side direction (Figure 4.11).

Figure 4.11. The late afternoon sun was crossing in from the right of the frame, creating shadows and highlights that define the contours of the landscape.

Back Lighting

The best light to use for separating your subject from a background is, of course, back light. Unfortunately, back lighting provides little illumination on the front of your subject—which is what your camera is pointing at—but it does an excellent job of separating the subject from the background and giving a three-dimensional feeling to the shot.

Usually, a back lighting technique is used to enhance a silhouette or to provide a little separation in combination with other light sources. Typically, I’ll use this kind of light if I’m shooting a person in bright daylight. I might actually put the sun behind them, then use a flash to fill in the shadows on the subject’s face. That way, I have my separation using the back light from the sun, and I have an excellent light coming from my camera angle to define the face. Best of all, I don’t have bright sunlight shining into my subject’s eyes and making him squint. I get the best of all the characteristics of direction and quality of light (Figure 4.12).

Figure 4.12. By positioning myself so that the bright sun is behind my subject, I can get a good rim of light to separate him from the background while using a flash to brighten his face.

Chapter 4 Assignments

Now that you know what light looks like in photographic terms, it’s time to start looking for those different qualities of light and discovering how they apply to your photography.

The color of light

Set you camera’s white balance to Daylight and try shooting in as many different light sources as possible. Compare the results so that you get a good idea of the qualities of each type of light source.

Hard vs. soft

Find a willing volunteer, have them stand out in the direct sun, and take their picture. Then look for a shady spot and take another. Compare the quality of the light from both photos.

Directional light

As long as you have a volunteer hanging around, have them stand facing the sun and take a shot. Next, have them turn so that the light is coming from the side and take another shot. Finally, have them turn so the sun is at their back. Of course, you will need to rotate your position as well to take advantage of the different directional light.

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