Kaylee actually beat me this week, and had her photo taken and processed and ready to post days before I got mine sorted! A little background:
Light is crucial to our art. We seek out beautiful light to enhance our subjects. Sometimes the light itself is the subject. Without it, black or bland! The word photography is derived from the Greek words for light and drawing. Lighting can be as diverse as photography itself. You’ll hear terms such as “quality” and “quantity” of light and the direction of light. Quality of light refers to whether we have soft, diffused light or hard light. Soft light creates a soft transition from highlights to shadows on our subjects while hard light produces bright highlights and dark shadows often with hard lines. Soft light is usually the result of a large light source (quantity) and the opposite is true of hard light. Think about being outside on a sunny day. That sun looks big in the sky, but is it really? It’s almost 93 million miles away!! That makes it pretty small. That small light source is harsh and casts hard shadows and histogram blowing highlights. Take that same sun at the same time of day, but on an overcast day and now you have a larger light source casting soft light down on your subject.
We’ll be looking at the direction of light in specifically in future weeks, but this week we are going on a mission to find the light that inspires us to pick up our cameras. I know for a lot of you, that light is the light of your eyes (aka the kiddos), but I want to challenge you to look at light for the light’s sake. If you can capture the rugrats in beautiful light, then great. A trick for younger less cooperative children is to set up some of their toys in an area where you get pretty light. Pre-meter the scene before you bring them in. You can expose for the hightlights off of the palm of your hand. This will save you valuable time if you have a small window of opportunity with your subjects.
This week I want you to find the light. It can be the main star of your photo or it can be the supporting act, but really challenge yourself to find great light. I will be the first to admit that this can be hard considering the weather doesn’t always cooperate with our intentions. Rain, snow, gloom… Yes, that happens, but you can still find interesting light. Does the day job interfere with photography? Don’t worry, interesting light doesn’t always have to be natural light. You can use flash (off-camera or bounced), lamp light, light shining through a door from another room, window light, headlights, street lights. No excuses! Take your camera with you everywhere and observe the light around you. What is inspiring you this week? There is interesting light everywhere.
Since Kaylee took her shot first, I’ll post it first. She went with a literal interpretation, and found her lamp, then resituated it on the bathroom floor for a more interesting shot.
For me, part of the fun of our new house (is it still new if we’ve been here since May?) is finding the pockets of light. In the morning, it’s pinkish dawn over the back deck, and warm morning light in the bathroom between Kaylee’s room and Doyce’s office. In the afternoon, it’s the sun shining through the faceted glass around the front door, and into Zoe’s bedroom and the living room. I took advantage of that light, and a somewhat cooperative Zoe, for my shot.
I love the play of shadows from the window blinds on her face!
