Lights?
Which the best moment to talk about them when the streets of our cities are full of Christmas’ lights. We love this atmosphere, and you?
Our city, Faenza, is great at this time.
Every year it’s wonderful to walk through the centre, it seems like a magical world.
Well, let’s get to the point. Today we talk about photos’ light.
Did you know that the word “photography” comes from the Greek and it means “write with the light”?
It’s amazing, don’t you think?!
Which photographer, doesn’t love to play with lights?
No one, obviously! :P
Light is the most important resource for a photographer, the fundamental ingredient to create his photos.
It’s not only about having enough light to shoot without any problems, it’s about using light with the best characteristics in order to give the right value and the right communicative weight to the subject protagonist of the photo.
If you want to be a good photographer you have to learn how to use lights.
What we must always keep in mind, before moving on to technicalities, is that if the light is not the right one, the beauty of a portrait, of a landscape, of an object would be lost, giving us back an image without magic.
The first type of light we need to learn about and exploit is natural light.
Just because it is natural, it is certainly more beautiful, it’s free, but at the same time it is impossible to control. Not only does it change constantly throughout the day, but also different weather conditions can affect it, preventing us from having the right light for our shots.
For example, we need clouds to perfectly play the role of a softbox, but the sun shines brightly all day long (in the case of an outdoor photo), or inside a room we would need a medium-sized window that could light it up completely, but there isn’t one or there is only a table lamp, or there is a window, but the sun doesn’t come towards us and hides behind some clouds.
I mean, there can be so many difficult situations.
But this has never prevented a photographer from taking good quality pictures, because he can use artificial light.
The main advantage of artificial light is that it can be positioned and shaped as we desired. The most common types are camera flashes and indoor lights.
However, this great advantage has an inevitable disadvantage: in order to change and organize the lights in the way we prefer, we often have to get more than one light source, and also many other accessories, often expensive.
In all cases, although the use of artificial light is fundamental for any photographer today, we think that in order to use artificial light correctly, a professional should always learn first to make the most of what nature has to offer. A good knowledge of both can help us to improve our work and get a better result.
LET’S GO IN ACTION!
The first thing to do when arriving at the location or set is to assess the intensity of the light.
Whether natural or artificial.
In this first step, don’t use the camera for a second, but use your eyes.
HOW DO YOUR EYES REACT TO LIGHT?
For example, if you go from a light room to a dark one for a while you don’t see anything, everything will be dark, you will find yourself in an “underexposure” situation.
Instead, if you go from a dark room to a light one for a while you will be dazzled by the brightness and until your eyes get used to it you will find yourself in an “overexposure” situation.
NOW LET’S TAKE THE CAMERA, and do the same thing.
Depending on whether the scene has too much or too little light, we will have to set a combination of ISO, time and an adequate diaphragm opening.
So, after assessing the quantity of light, we should now look at the quality.
Of course the quality cannot be measured and depends on our visual perception.
Generally we talk about hard light and soft light.
Hard light is “ the disturbing light”, for example the bright sunlight at midday in summer. This light creates strong, dark and well-defined shadows of objects and strong contrasts between light and dark areas in the photographed scene.
Soft light is the opposite. The shadows are soft, not very evident, and therefore we do not create a great contrast between light and dark areas in our scene. For example, the light of a cloudy day does not illuminate too much and consequently the shadows are also more subdued.
In front of a scene there are three main directions that the light can take: we talk about frontal light that is the light that comes from behind the photographer; back light that comes from the front of the camera and therefore illuminates the subject from behind and side (lateral) light that includes all other possible directions of light.
But when to use one or the other? Here are our simple advice.
Frontal light is nice for almost all kinds of photos. We recommend avoiding it if you want to give three-dimensionality to the subject of the photo because it eliminates shadows and hides details.
Back light can successfully help you in making portraits, and to accentuate silhouettes.
Lateral light is great for highlighting the three-dimensionality of the subject, for example in a close-up photo you can emphasize the type of surface of a material, its folds, its porosity.
Another aspect to look at in a scene is the size of the light: if the light source is large the shadows will be more blurred and the contrast will be less. Opposite if the lights source is smaller, the shadows will be more pronounced and darker and the contrast will be higher.
Watch out for shadows: they are often too pronounced and may not be suitable for the subject of your photo, for example in a portrait, unless you want to give the subject a particularly dramatic air.
Before saying goodbye, we want to give you a perfect example for this time: some tips how to photograph your Christmas decorations.
You might think that the best way to make your Christmas lights stand out is to photograph them in complete darkness, but this is not the right way. The result would be a photo with the lights floating in an indefinite black, because the contrast would be too high.
Here’s our first tip: if you’re indoors, you can try to play around with various elements, e.g. open the windows a little, draw the curtains or turn on a few small soft lights, to create the right atmosphere while avoiding too strong contrasts.
Second tip: if your Christmas decoration lights are outside then it is essential to seize the moment, the best time is when the sun starts to disappear over the horizon and the atmosphere is not yet completely dark.
Third tip: if you take photos with your smartphone, don’t use a flash, you’ll just get a flashy, violent wave of light which would ruin the magic of the photo, enhancing the ambient light. And if you can, equip yourself with a tripod, even the simple one on the market to start with, so that you can hold the phone in place for as long as necessary and avoid unpleasant blurring effects in your photos.
Finally, we would like to remind you of something very important: remember that there is no universal and 100% successful scheme, ours are simple advice.
Everything will be different and individual not only according to your taste, but also to your subject and the scene you are capturing. Only through many trials and your own personal experience will you find your best angles and light conditions to shoot your masterpieces.
Thank you for being with us again this month.
With best wishes for a happy holiday, see you in the new year.
