Complete photography guide
Master
Light TAKE DRAMATIC PHOTOS USING OUR EXPERT TIPS
\u25a0 \u25a0 \u25a0
How to control and enhance natural light Creative ways to shoot with \ufb02 ash Simple techniques for spectacular results
VITAL SKILLS GUIDE
Master
Light
Many photographers just starting out tend to think of the role of light only in terms of exposure. But \ufb01 nding the best light and lear how to control it can have a huge effect on the emotional impact of your images. This book will arm you with the knowledge and techniques you need to really begin mastering light.
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Master
Light
TAKE DRAMATIC PHOTOS USING OUR EXPERT TIPS
Contents ■
Light’s character
p10
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Chasing the light
p14
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Improving the quality
p16
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Master of light: Charlie Waite
p22
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Fill-in with fl ash
p24
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Master of light: Chris Johns
p28
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Dealing with low light
p30
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Light on the landscape
p36
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Master of light: George D. Lepp
p46
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Top 10 tips
p49
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Start painting with light O
ur three previous photography guides have covered composition, exposure and colour – now it’s time to look at the element which is the key infl uence for all three aspects. As a photographer, you need to learn to love light, appreciate its endless subtleties and try to make the most of its mood swings. Soon you’ll feel your heart race a little faster as the black clouds of a passing storm tear apart and rich, golden light burns through to transform even the most mundane scene (just don’t forget to carry your camera at all times – you’ll kick yourself if you miss capturing such an event). Don’t pull your hair out if the light isn’t ‘right’ though. You just need to learn a few tricks that can help you rescue the situation – this book will show you them. We’ll give you ideas for taming harsh light, show you how to make the most of falling light levels and how to use fl ash in understated ways. We don’t cover studio lighting in this book – that will come later. Instead, we focus on natural light – how to capture it, how to enhance and how to use it in great new ways.
Marcus Hawkins
Editor, Digital Camera Magazine
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Light’s character Y
ou really begin to grow as a photographer when you start being able to read the different characteristics of light and are able to adjust your shooting accordingly. Where photography’s concerned, there are four elements of light that you need to be able to recognise: its quality, colour, intensity and direction. You can control each of them to a certain degree, whether it’s through a shift in camera position, the use of light modifi ers or during image processing.
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Quality of light
Colour of light
You can judge the quality of light by the shadows We covered the colour of light comprehensively it creates. Hard lighting – from the sun on in the previous guide, but it’s such an important a cloudless summer’s day or an undiffused ingredient for creating images with emotional fl ashgun – creates inky, sharp-edged shadows impact that we couldn’t leave it out here. In and hot highlights. Your camera will strugglegeneral, to ‘warmer’ pictures produce a more maintain detail in both, and compromises might pleasurable viewing experience. ‘Colder’ pictures have to be taken. Soft light – early morning, late can leave use feeling exactly that. Fortunately, it’s evening, a cloudy day, a misty day – reduces the one of the easiest elements of light to ‘correct’. contrast between light and dark and produces You can change your camera’s white balance soft-edged shadows in which detail’s still visible. setting to enhance or reduce the warmth of a It’s ideal for portraits, close-ups and revealing scene. the You can place colour correction fi lters in glorious colours of autumn. You can improve front the of your lens – blue to cool down a scene, quality of light to some degree on a small scale amber to warm it up. Or you can simply wait using diffusors, refl ectors, fi ll-fl ash and the like until you’re back home editing your images on (you’ll fi nd tips and techniques for doing justyour that computer before you start changing the throughout this guide), but there’s very little colour you balance of your picture. can do other than wait for the very best light when you’re shooting landscapes.
The sun rising or setting creates long shadows – plan for them when you compose an image. Here, an ordinary location’s been transformed by the play of light and shadow, creating a simple, powerful photograph. Light
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Intensity of light
Direction of light
Perhaps not as important in enhancing the mood Light can illuminate your subject from three basic of a shot as the other characteristics of light,directions – front, side and back. Each brings its intensity, or brightness has a crucial role to play own in unique feel to a picture. Backlighting, for terms of exposure. The more light there is instance, can be used to provide a ‘halo’ around a available, the smaller your aperture can be and portrait sitter. It provides mood, drama and visual yet still retain action-stopping shutter speeds. interest. It brings foliage to life and gives water an Your ISO can also be set lower – so there’s the edge. The only thing to watch out for is direct potential to create a higher quality image. The light striking the front of the lens. This produces more intense and hard the light is, though, the fl are, which reduces contrast. You might fi nd a more chance there is of highlights getting ‘blown’ lens hood – particularly on a wideangle lens – in a digital image. Check your camera’s histogram doesn’t always prevent fl are. In these instances, – an image on an LCD monitor might seem move a piece of card or your hand close to the brighter or darker than it actually is. front of the lens to shade it from the light (just be sure that it doesn’t appear in the frame). Sidelighting is great for bringing out the texture in a landscape. It reveals shape and form and gives pictures depth. Frontlighting is good for close-up portraits, particularly of birds and animals. It might not have the impact of backlighting or sidelighting, but don’t limit yourself just to these.
Backlighting can enhance mood. This shot wouldn’t be as atmospheric if shot from the other side of the subject, with full frontlighting.
Early morning light is usually less intense than that of the sun at midday. You’ll need to work with wider apertures in order to freeze movement.
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Chasing the light O
nce you start getting a feel for light, you’ll search out the times of day where the quality of light is generally at its best – at the start and end of the day during the ‘golden hours’. The sun’s rays have to pass through more of the atmosphere during sunrise and sunset. This fi lters out more of the wavelengths at the blue end of the colour spectrum, leaving us to see wavelengths at the warmer end. This is why the light has a ‘colder’ quality at midday, when the sun is directly overhead and passing through a much thinner part of the atmosphere. A sunset tends to produce a richer, warmer image than a sunrise because atmospheric pollution’s built up throughout the day, scattering the light still further. Sunsets and sunrises are probably the most cliched photographic subjects known to man – but don’t resist capturing a truly breathtaking one when the moment presents itself.
You sunset shots don’t have to be cliched skyscapes – try incorporating the orb in unusual ways… 14
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Get there early
Many photographers prefer shooting at dawn – that way they’re not fi ghting against falling light levels as they would be at the end of the day. Lakes and rivers also tend to be more still at this time of the day – perfect for capturing refl ections. Early morning light can have more of a sharper, clearer quality than at sunset – and shadows tend to creep on you rather fast at the end of the day. For those of us holding down a day job, it’s unlikely that we can escape work commitments to catch the sunset on a regular basis – but getting up early and getting out before the sun rises can be an option. You need to make sure you’re in position and ready to start shooting before the sun actually clips the horizon though, as the ‘magic’ light only lasts for a few minutes. Don’t include the sun’s bright orb in your frame when you’re metering – it’s likely to cause severe underexposure in your shot. Instead, take a spot meter reading from a bright area of sky, lock the reading in and recompose with the sun back in the frame. Bracket exposures at +/- 0.5EV around this initial exposure.
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Improving the quality D
o you want hard or soft light? Both Soften hard light types have their purpose in The reason hard lights are exactly that, is photography. If it’s striking, graphic shots because they’re a point-source of light with black, hard-edged shadows you relative to the size of the subject of your want, seek out raw, hard light – when photograph, resulting in unbalanced the sun’s high in a clear sky or you’re exposures. The sun’s big, but so far away shooting with on-camera fl ash. Chances that, on a cloudless day it too becomes a are, though, that you’ll want soft, small, harsh light source. But it can be diffused light more often than not. On asoftened to produce a much more bright, cloudy day, the sky acts like a fl attering result. Commercial diffusion giant softbox. You’ll have a much easierpanels are available – thin pieces of semitime metering for a scene as the contrast transparent material which, when held will have been reduced – no deep between the sun and the subject, spread shadows or bright highlights to try andand soften the light, removing glaring rectify later on your computer. You’ll behighlights and opening up the detail in able to reveal much fi ner detail, and shadows. Try using a sheet of tracing paper colour appears more saturated. for macro subjects. When you’re working with small subjects using a macro lens, a fl ashgun held close to them effectively becomes a large softbox relative to their size (particularly when it’s fi tted with its own diffusor)..
Close-up shots such as this collection of autumn leaves always benefi t from soft, diffused light – although when water drops are present, experiment with sidelighting…
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Use a refl ector
Diffusors are particularly suited to closerup and macro work, as there’ll be room to place them between the light source and the subject without them appearing in the frame. If you’re dealing with a larger subject, particularly outdoors, you’ll probably want to reach for a fl ashgun or a refl ector. Refl ectors provide the more natural-looking results of the two (they only make use of the ambient light, after all) and they’re much easier to use – you can see results ‘live’ (no need to take a test shot, check the camera’s LCD monitor and adjust output, as you’ll more than likely have to do with fl ash). You can use small refl ectors to bounce light precisely where you want it, or use a large one to fi ll in detail on a much grander scale.
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Refl ector options
There are many commercially available refl ectors, ranging in size, colour and price – a simple 12” one is likely to set you back around £10, while something in the region of 6’x4’ is unlikely to leave you with much change from £100. Despite their cost, these types of refl ectors have several advantages. They’re hard-wearing and portable, with the circular collapsible variety folding up into something approaching a quarter of their full size. They’re also available in double-sided variations, the classic combination being white on one side, gold on the other. White retains the colour of the natural light, while the likes of silver, gold and varying combinations of both all add their own particular colour. Silver can bring a fresh sparkle to a picture, particularly a portrait, while gold can warm up skin tones well. Just don’t overdo the gold – try using it when shooting on a beach, as that’s where viewers would expect to see golden light refl ected by the sand…
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There’s no need to spendFind a natural refl ector If you fi nd yourself in a situation where you don’t a fortune
If you can’t afford a good quality have a refl ector close to hand, look for an refl ector, or you simply want to alternative source of refl ected light. An open book supplement your current set-up, or newspaper positioned close to the face of a why not make your own? The sitter can make a simple alternative. If you’re on a simplest sort is a sheet of plain beach, get your subject close to the sand, which white card. This will provide a bounces back a surprising amount of light (if you soft, even illumination for the can fi nd a white beach towel, even better). The surface you’re bouncing light cold light refl ected by snow in winter can provide onto. For a sharper, cleaner excellent fi ll light, while the rippling surface of a quality to the light, reach for river, stream or pool, full of catchlights on a sunny aluminium foil. Simply crinkle it up day, provides a beautiful quality of illumination. Be into a ball, uncrinkle it, and stick itaware of your camera reading for bright to a piece of card. If you don’t makebackgrounds though – it could be fooled into the surface wrinkled, you’ll end up underexposing the scene. It’s better to get in close with a big, hard slice of refl ected lightto your subject and take a reading from them that feels ‘artifi cial’ to the viewer. This directly. Remember to increase the exposure for might be exactly the effect you’re after pale skin and decrease it for dark skin. though. A small mirror provides an even more crisp, directional source of bounced light – it can be useful for isolating details in a graphic way in a large shot, or for really adding punch to a macro shot.
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How to brighten up a face
you can get rid of any ugly shadowing onday, you’ll be surprised how much light can A portrait shoot’s the classic situation for their face. be directed back onto your subject using using a refl ector, particularly when it’s Areas to pay particular attention to are even the simplest refl ector. Don’t be afraid outdoors on a clear, bright day where, if you around the eyes and nose and under the chin. to use more than one either (try one angled can’t fi nd an area of shade in which your Wrinkles and ‘imperfect’ skin will also be to each side, plus one below the subject) – subject can stand, you’ll have to deal withexaggerated by strong sidelighting – placing but a ensure you don’t cause your sitter to high contrast lighting. The golden rule is don’t refl ector close to the opposite side of thesquint by bouncing sunlight straight into position your subject where they face directly subject’s face will remove even the smallest their eyes. into bright sunlight – they’ll end up squinting, shadows. A refl ector placed low will also As well as providing a more fl attering the increase in light levels also which isn’t fl attering. Instead, pose thembounce so light under the brims of caps and illumination, hats that the light’s coming from over their – you risk burning out the detail in well litmeans you can take advantage of higher shoulder or from an angle to the side and areas use of a subject wearing headgear if shutter speeds, and consequently smaller a refl ector to bounce light back into the you simply try to increase the exposure toapertures. The result? Portraits with a deeper darker areas. Your subject will thank you open if up the shadows instead. On a brightfi eld of focus, sharp from nose-tip to ear.
Take advantage of natural refl ectors. A white door (offcamera) was used for the left shot, and a pale fl oor and book in this one.
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Master of light Charlie Waite
is the most admired landscape C harlie photographer in Britain today. His mastery of
light and composition is clear from every one of his exquisite frames. The name of the photographic holiday workshop company he set up 11 years ago – Light & Land – fi ts like a glove. He hasn’t always been a professional landscape photographer though. Originally an actor, he began taking pictures of other actors and theatrical productions in 1977. Just four years later he was commissioned to provide all the images for the National Trust book of Long Walks. Since then, there have been over twenty books featuring his stunning images, numerous exhibitions and tours all over the world. Everyone who wants to know how to lift their landscape images above the norm needs a copy of Charlie’s ‘The Making of Landscape Photographs’ in their book collection.
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This photograph of the River Esera, Huesca, Spain was exposed at ISO 50, for 1/8th sec at f/16. Charlie attached two fi lters – a polariser and 81A warm-up – to the wideangle lens on his trusted Hasselblad. The contrast of light and shadow gives this shot a real threedimensional quality. Taken as the sun was setting, Charlie had to race against time – in a matter of minutes there would be no light in the left of the frame, the bushes there would lose their glow, and the whole composition would have lost its balance.
To learn more about Charlie Waite, pay a visit to charliewaite.com. Light
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Fill-in with flash A
lthough it doesn’t soften the quality of harsh midday light, a burst of fi ll fl ash can open up shadows to provide a more pleasing, balanced exposure. The key to making naturallooking shots is to ensure the fi ll-in light is subtle. You don’t want the artifi cial light to overpower the natural light – it shouldn’t be obvious that you’ve used it. The idea is to expose for the highlights – if there’s time, switch to spotmetering for precise measurement, but be aware of the tone of the area you’re metering from (you’ll need to add a little more exposure if the subject’s lighter than mid-tone, for instance). You then let the fl ash pop some life back into the dark areas. Today’s fl ashes are generally very advanced with effective automatic fi ll-in modes. However, for the most part they tend to produce an obviously ‘fl ashed’ look, with shadows brought up to a similar exposure level as the lighter areas. Try reducing the output further for a more natural result…
The fi rst of these shots was taken without any fi ll-in fl ash. The image is dull. The second shot shows what happens when you shoot in automatic fi ll-fl ash mode – the shadows have been brought up to a similar level as the lighter areas. It looks a bit ‘hot’
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Set up a test
In this shot, we reduced the normal fl ash output by 1.7EV. This has provided a subtle amount of fi ll-in light. Shadows have been retained, but there’s detail in them
It’s worth doing your own run of test shots to begin understanding how your fl ash will react in different lighting situations. First, get hold of a white subject, a dark subject and mid-tone subject (visit your local toy shop and pick up some soft toys – they’re ideal). Head outside on a clear day, position each one in turn within fl ash range and fi re off a set of frames, changing the fl ash exposure each time (make sure you allow time for your fl ash to fully recharge between shots). Start with a regular fl ash exposure, then decrease its output gradually over the next four or fi ve frames, until you reach -2EV. Do this for each of the three subjects, making sure the ambient lighting conditions are consistent throughout. You can then simply look at the shots on your computer to determine what atio of fi ll-in fl ash you prefer for that given lighting condition.
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Shoot into the sun
Automatic balanced fi ll-in modes on fl ashes come into their own when you’re shooting into the sun. Here, you don’t want the fi ll-in light to be too subtle, or you’ll end up with an underexposed main subject. A well-balanced fl ash-lit portrait taken against a clear blue sky can look stunning, for instance. It’s also worth seeking out a situation where you can isolate a backlit person against a shadowy area – their rimlit hair and skin will appear to glow against the dark background (be wary of the camera being tricked into overexposure by such a backdrop), while the burst of fl ash brings the exposure on the face and body in shadow back to the correct level. To achieve more of a surreal quality in an outdoor shot, try underexposing the ambient light (spot meter a mid-tone in the background and reduce the exposure by 0.7EV to 1EV as starting point). This will make your fl ash-exposed foreground subject ‘pop’ from its surroundings..
The combination of lighting from two directions lifts this shot. Watch out for overexposure on pale skin tones when the sitter’s wearing black clothes. 26
Light
Boost an interior
The main problem you’ll encounter when it comes to shooting interior shots is the mixture of light that’s usually present. Depending on the location, you could end up with fl uorescent, tungsten, daylight and fl ash providing an ‘intriguing’ mix of green, orange and blue light (depending on your selection of white balance). You might like this effect though. There again, you might want to produce a more natural blend of fl ash-lit foreground subject and a background lit by tungsten or fl uorescent lighting. In this case, you’ll need to place a strip of orange warming gel (for tungsten) or green gel (for fl uorescent) over your fl ash. You can then select the matched white balance preset on the camera and both light sources will be ‘corrected’ at the same time.
To help fl ash blend in well with such a ‘warm’ scene, place a piece of orange colour-correcting fi lm over the front of it. Any white balance adjustments will then affect the whole image. Light
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Master of light Chris Johns
C
hris is the new editor of National Geographic magazine, but before he joined the management team there he spent 17 years as a contributing photographer, specialising in dramatic images of the natural world. He’s well known for his images of Africa, and in particular those taken at low light levels, where he frequently mixed ambient light with fl ash. Although to the untrained eye it’s hard to tell in the fi nal photographs, because he did so in subtle ways, mounting an amber fi lter in a soft box to blend the fl ash with the warm glow of a fi re when shooting local villagers for instance. He also used the low light of evening and dawn to introduce a sense of movement, combining slow shutter speeds with a burst of fl ash, to retain sharpness in key areas. Chris has a new challenge at National Geographic. He’s the editor who’ll guide the magazine into the digital age. We’ll be keeping a keen eye on the results…
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Here’s a fantastic shot of Bushman tribespeople in Namibia, gathering by the fi re for a night of ritual dancing. The image feels alive. It’s full of contrasts – cool blue sky and warm fi relight; blurred motion and frozen fragments.
Look for more of Chris Johns’ work at www. nationalgeographic.com. Light
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Dealing with low light W
hen light levels start to fall, don’t feel you Shoot a silhouette have to immediately start charging upThere are two key things you need to think about your fl ash – it has the potential to really spoilwhen the trying to shoot a silhouette – where you’re mood of a shot. Pick the right subject and getgoing to meter from and where you’re going to creative, and you’ll be able to continue takingposition your subject. First up, switch your photos using natural light for longer than youcamera’s exposure mode to Manual, or be might imagine. Experiment with increasing the prepared to make use of its AE Lock feature when exposure level of a shot made at low ambientyou’re in Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority. light levels, to restore its brightness (be waryMake of sure your metering pattern’s set to Spot LCD monitors which make the image appear(Multi-segment metering patterns will generally brighter than it actually is – always check theattempt to increase the exposure and bring detail histogram). Increase the saturation of the colours back into the subject you’re trying to render as a to make a scene come alive. Stop down the silhouette). Take a reading from an area of the sky aperture to induce slow shutter speeds and which seems fairly light in tone (try near the capture movement as a blur. horizon), then open up 1EV from that reading, to make it a little brighter than mid-tone. Following that, all you’ve got to do is position your camera so that the subjects you’ll be capturing as silhouettes aren’t merging or obscuring each other – the most successful shots work because the individual shapes are distinct.
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Slow it down
There’ll be times when the light levels drop so low that you’ve got no option but to work with really slow shutter speeds, even when you’re shooting at your lens’ widest aperture. Not a problem if your camera’s mounted to a sturdy tripod and you’re shooting scenes where there’s no movement. But when things are moving? Time to get creative, opting for those ‘artistic’ studies of motion and colour. Mount your camera on a tripod to ensure it’s rock-steady throughout those long exposure times. Make sure you include a combination of stationary and moving objects to provide the contrast that makes pictures come alive. Try panning with the movement – and keep at least one part of a subject reasonable sharp and discernable in the blurred area to provide a place for your viewers to jump in (and out) of the image. Watch your distance though – subjects closer to the lens will require a faster shutter speed to freeze some of their motion
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Add slow sync fl ash
Once you discover how slow sync mode can captured by the slow shutter speed to trail Although a burst of fl ash can ruin some shots transform your photography, it’s sure to behind the sharp image frozen by the fl ash. taken in low light levels – resulting in the become the fl ash mode you’ll reach for more Your subject will appear to move backwards classic underexposed background and rabbitthan any other. Some fl ashes can drop below if you don’t. The only problem with this caught-in-the-headlights look of a subjecttheir sync speed (usually 1/60 sec) as a mode is that it becomes harder to capture the within the range of your fl ash – once it’s default, others you’ll have to manually setpeak to of the action – particularly if you’re married to a slow sync mode, it can provide slow sync – you need to read your manualpanning to with a moving subject. You won’t be an incredibly atmospheric exposure. Thisknow how your fl ash will react. able to see through the viewfi nder while the mode allows the natural light to register anIf your fl ash unit – either a built-in one or shutter’s open during the long exposure, so external dedicated one – has a rear curtainit’s hard to judge where your subject will be exposure on your camera’s sensor – including sync mode, it’s worth combining this with when the fl ash is triggered. It becomes a case any blurred movement – along with a slow sync to allow the blurred image moment frozen in time by the burst of fl ash. of biting the bullet – shoot lots of frames. Light
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Candlelight and fi relight
The glow of a fl ame gives you a soft, warm light which is perfect for creating atmospheric portraits. If you’re photographing someone by candlelight, be sure to include all or part of the fl ame in the picture – that way it won’t look like a white balance ‘error’ on your behalf. If shooting a portrait by candlelight, you’ll need to increase the ISO to 800 or 1600 and open the aperture wide to get a fast enough shutter speed to stop any subject movement. Mount your camera on a tripod to prevent camera shake as well. The key is not to trust your meter in this situation. If you’ve got a large area of darkness in the frame it could fool your camera into increasing the exposure. Instead, move in close to your sitter and take a meter reading off their face – once you’ve positioned the candle in such a way that it’s not causing ugly shadowing across their features. Be careful not to block any of the candlelight hitting them or take a reading from an area in shadow. Adjust the exposure according to the sitter’s skin tone (open up for lighter skin, close down for darker skin) and recompose your shot. When shooting fi res, it can create an interesting effect if you select a small aperture and slow shutter speed (work in Aperture priority to let the camera select a corresponding shutter speed). This will introduce movement and blur to the fl ames, while the logs or coals underneath remain still. Remember to mount your camera on a tripod…
Cheer up, son! At least he’s adopted a pose that he can hold for a long period of time – photography by candlelight means slow exposures, even with wide-open apertures. 34
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Light
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Light on the landscape I
f you want to capture the spirit of a landscape, you’re going to have to wait for the ‘right light’. Unlike close-up work, where you can control and manipulate the light to suit the subject, there’s no way you can control the lighting over the large area of land. You need to be prepared to wait – and you might well fi nd that your most meaningful shots are taken when every other photographer has packed up and gone home. While the sun’s low on the horizon, its raking light causes long, deep shadows to reach out over the land. Unlike a portrait, where you’re usually working to remove shadows, it’s the play of light and dark caused by strong sidelighting which adds texture and form to landscapes.
Add depth
Just like placing contrasting shapes, colours and sizes of subjects in the same frame can yield some of the most exciting photographs, so to will the inclusion of contrasting light. It can help give your landscape photographs an effective sense of depth – to give the 2D image captured on your camera’s sensor a three dimensional quality. Think in terms of contrasting bright against dark, light against shadow – building up layers which lead you through a picture. A well lit foreground subject set against a dark, brooding background can create an air of tension. Imagine beyond that dark area is another band of hills, spotlit by the sun, and beyond that still, hills in shadow. It’s this process of layering the light that leads your eye easily though a picture.
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Look for landscapes scarred by ridges and grooves to make the most of rich, warm sidelighting.
Look for balance
With strong sidelighting, as exhibited in this picture here, you need to pay careful consideration to the composition. The deep shadows created can overwhelm a shot if they’re not balanced well with brighter areas of an image. Cover up the small, bright area of rock on the bottom-left of this shot with your thumb – does the composition look better with it in place, or when it’s removed? Is it a distraction, or does it help balance the area in shadow with the bright strip on the horizon? You’ll need to make these decisions quickly – light of this quality doesn’t tend to last long.
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Light up the city
Don’t simply head for the country or coast when great light’s available. Cityscapes can prove immensely rewarding to shoot during the morning or evening. Look for the low sidelighting and long shadows to give structures shape and form at this time of day. Isolate details with a medium telephoto zoom (something which a maximum reach of around 200mm should meet most needs when mounted on cameras with a 1.6 crop factor). Find windows refl ecting the cooler sky contrasting against brickwork bathed in the sun’s warm light. In this shot, shadows become the driving compositional element. We spot-metered off the brickwork in sunlight, rotated the camera to fi nd a dynamic angle and zoomed in to exclude distracting elements (lamposts, mainly).
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The trouble with sidelightingon the right side of the image are burnt out
We’ve seen that sidelighting provides where the camera’s given more exposure bias excellent modelling for landscapes and to the shadowed area. We reduced the buildings. The only problem is, if you shoot exposure by 0.7EV for the second shot. these scenes using a multi-segment or centreAgain, the large rock at the base of the steps weighted metering pattern, all those shadows is too ‘hot’. Reducing the exposure by a total are likely to fool your camera into of 1.3EV for the third shot has ensured the overexposing – it will try to make the dark rocks have now returned to a brightness shadows closer to mid-tone in value. Thislevel which matches the way the scene results in any brighter areas of the sceneappeared to our eyes. The third image picked out by the sun becoming grossly provides a more usable start-point for imageoverexposed and losing all detail. processing, although the second one would Take this series of shots above. The fi rst likely provide a better result if you print one was shot using multi-segment metering directly from the camera. in Aperture priority, with no adjustment to For more exposure solutions, see our previous guide, Master Exposure. the metered value (1/160 at f/9). The rocks Light
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Capture the elements
Look for quite moments
If it’s raining heavily, angle yourself towards the light While – backlighting can be loud and attentionbacklighting makes raindrops sparkle. Offset them grabbing, it can also be used in more subtle ways. Take against a dark background to maximise the effect. this If coastal shot, for instance. It’s backlit, although you want to freeze the drops, select a shutter speed there’s of no rimlighting or glow. Instead, the overcast day around 1/125 sec or faster – opt for 1/60 sec or slower has created the perfect light for this striking graphic to render them as streaks of light. As with most ‘action’ image. It would lose its power if there was any more shots, it’s best to fi re off several frames in quick discernable detail in the silhouetted rocks. If it was shot succession, then check the LCD monitor to judge on thea bright day, the focus of the picture would be more best arrangement of drops/lines. on the image in the background. As it is, the strength of the shot comes from the whole, rather than the individual parts.
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Shoot water Seek out rivers, streams, lakes and pools when shooting landscapes. They bring the land to life.
A polarizer will help reduce glaring surface refl ections on the water on a sunny day. But on a gloomy day, it’s those very highlights that you’re trying to preserve, in order to add interest.
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Light
Invest in a neutral density graduated fi lter. The refl ection will be darker than the sky – an ND grad will help you balance the exposure. Avoid over-fi ltering though – start with a 1-stop grad.
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Be persistent
Take away the colour
Don’t resist returning to a promising photographic You’ll begin getting a bigger appreciation of the role location over time in order to capture the scene light plays in photography if you start seeing the under different lighting conditions. Seasonally,world the in black and white. Without the distraction of light will be drastically different, but it also changes colour, you’ll begin to gain a deeper understanding on a much smaller scale. What is in sunlight in of the how light, shadow and composition are the morning could well be in shadow by the afternoon. building blocks of the most successful photographs. Over just half an hour at dawn or dusk, the quality Continue to take images as colour ones in-camera, and colour of light can vary dramatically. Find the but convert them to black and white on your view that pleases you most and stick with it – and computer later (then you’ve always got the option don’t be satisfi ed with the fi rst frame you make. of returning to the colour original). Identify what it is that you like about the way the light and shadow work together in your best images, then try using that knowledge on an entirely different subject.
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Light
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Master of light George D. Lepp
O
ne of the most prolifi c phographers in the United States, George Lepp has been capturiing breathtaking images with his camera and lecturing on photographic techniques for over three decades. He specialises in photography of the natural world and has been at the forefront of the digital revolution – he’s the founder and director of the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in California, where interested parties can learn about digital capture, image-editing and printing. He’s one of Canon’s ‘Explorers of Light’, a group of 60 world-class photographers who share their knowledge and passion for photography through seminars and personal appearances. They also get to use the latest Canon EOS kit.
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Trying to select an image which typifi es George’s approach to capturing light is a hard process – a man who’s been a top-class image maker for over 30 years tends to build up a vast collection of stunning photographs. But this leapt out at us. It just screams LIGHT!
See more of George’s impressive images at lepphoto.com. Light
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Master
Light
Top 10 tips...
RISE EARLY, STAY LATE
BRING OUT COLOURS
The golden hours around dawn Shoot saturated colours such as and dusk are when the light tends autumn foliage on an overcast or to be the most exciting. cloudy-bright day.
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USE REFLECTORS
WATCH YOUR METER
You’ll get more natural results if Your camera can be fooled by you use a refl ector to fi ll-in detail, unusual lighting conditions. Spot rather than reaching for a fl ashgun. meter for total control.
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KEEP SILHOUETTES SIMPLE
ADD LIGHT IN FOG
Make sure you retain the When shooting mist or fog, distinctive shape of a subject – increase your exposure by 1EV to don’t let it bleed into other silhouettes.bring back the brightness.
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ADD FLASH SUBTLY
GO SLOW
Avoid the ‘overfl ashed’ look – When shooting in low light, reduce your fl ash output when combine a slow shutter speed with shooting in daylight. a burst of fl ash for interesting results.
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AVOID FLARE
BE PERSISTENT
Shield the front element of your Inspiring views deserve lens with your hand when inspiring light – don’t be shooting into the sun. satisfi ed until you get it.
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