Light in photography, this is the essential and fundamental element of photography.
If you were to inquire about the fundamental element crucial to photography, my unequivocal response would undoubtedly be: LIGHT.
Regardless of the array of equipment at your disposal, the multitude of lenses in your collection, or the exceptional quality and maximum aperture they boast, none of it surpasses the significance of light.
It goes without saying that in macro photography, light is crucial for obtaining a good photograph.
Light in photography. At the basis of everything, however, there must be an understanding of light. Knowing that light is needed to take photography is nothing revolutionary or innovative, it’s a well-known thing. If you are a photographer who wants to become aware of what he does.
Then memorize these four basic concepts.
Light Intensity in photography:
Light intensity affects the exposure of the image. Understanding how the amount of light affects the image can determine the lightness and darkness of the photo.
The first thing you need to do when you enter an environment is to evaluate the intensity of the light. Whether natural or artificial.
The intensity of light can also be identified as a quantity. At the end it is just a matter of understanding how much is present.
Leave the camera aside for a moment and imagine how your eyes react to changes in brightness:
if you go from a light room to a dark one you won’t see anything for a while… Everything is dark. In this case you find yourself in an “underexposure” situation.
if you go from a dark room to a light one. For a while you will be dazzled by the brightness. As long as your eyes don’t get used to it, you find yourself in a situation of “overexposure”.
With the camera you will have to behave in the same way. If the scene has a huge amount of light you’ll have to set an appropriate combination of ISO | TIME | APERTURE opening. If you shoot in Shutter Priority mode, you just need to specifically adjust the chosen shutter speed and ISO sensitivity. The aperture will be automatically adjusted by the camera.
Obviously in this case you must be aware that you cannot use a shutter speed that is too slow, because the excessive amount of light would make it impossible for the camera to set an adequate aperture and you would risk finding yourself with an overexposed photo.
The same applies if you shoot in Aperture Priority. In this case you have to be careful not to use an excessively open aperture which would cause difficulty for the camera which may not be able to use a sufficiently fast shutter speed.
The same principle applies to the opposite situation: with a low amount of light. You will have to be careful about the most suitable adjustments, but with the advantage of possibly being able to increase the ISO sensitivity in order to make the camera more sensitive to light.
Direction of Light in photography:
The direction the light comes from can shape objects and subjects in the photograph. Knowing how light affects the object can help create or avoid shadows. Determining the three-dimensionality and sense of depth in the photo.
Direction of the light, i.e. from what angle it illuminates the scene.
Also in this case I take the sun as a cue and how it behaves during the day. At midday in a beautiful summer it lights from top to bottom, creating shadows that are almost perpendicular to the objects. While at sunset the shadows are much more diagonal and long. As the sun illuminates the scene from a lower angle, close to the horizon.
If you like photographing natural environments, taking advantage of sunlight, you are forced to wait for nature and its course to find the best situation to photograph a landscape for example.
But with artificial light, even in this case, things are simpler because you can decide from what height and direction to let the light reach the subject.
Color Temperature in photography:
Light varies in color temperature, which can affect the overall look and feel of the image. Understanding color temperature allows you to adjust the balance between warm and cool colors in your image.
As you well know, light does not always have the same color. Most striking example is the fiery red hue it takes on during the beautiful summer sunsets or at sunrise.
In reality, however, the light varies continuously during the day. Variations given by the presence of cloudy skies, fog or other particular atmospheric conditions.
The color temperature (or color) of light has a profound impact on digital photography. Which is why you will need to remember to adjust the white balance on your camera appropriately.
With the same white balance adjustment tool you can also intervene to modify the visual appearance of the image you are photographing. Example: if during a scene illuminated by the sun you set the shadow or cloudy parameter as the white balance. Your image will immediately a warm dominant color (more intense reds and yellows).
PS: With artificial light things are a little bit simpler. Next time you go to the shopping center try checking the technical data on the bulbs on sale. These usually indicate the radiated color temperature. To help you to understand if it will produce a light colder (blue) or warmer (yellow).
Quality of light:
Light can be soft or hard, depending on its diffusion. The quality of light can affect how details are rendered in the image. Could have a significant impact on the mood and overall look of the photo.
The quality of light is NOT something we can measure. It has to do with visual perception and therefore I talk about:
HARD LIGHT MELLOW LIGHT (SOFT)
Hard light is usually easy to identify because it is the one that “annoys”. That intense light typical of summer midday on a clear day, so to speak. Hard light creates very dark and defined shadows of objects. Consequently it also creates strong contrasts between the dark areas and the light areas of the photographed scene.
Soft (or suffused) light is the opposite. It is the typical light situation of a cloudy day, with the sun behind the clouds unable to illuminate the scene violently and consequently the objects present soft shadows, often not very evident without creating great contrasts between the shaded areas and those exposed directly to light.
Precisely for this reason we speak of “soft” or “mellow” light.
If we consider sunlight, it is the presence of clouds that differentiates a scene illuminated by hard light compared to one with soft light.
Ok, you can possibly use opaque panels (also called diffusers) to break the harshness of the light if you have to photograph small objects, but how do you do it in the case of artificial light ?
Add a diffuser to get a “soft” light. Photographers, in general, much prefer soft light as it is suitable for most photographic contexts. From landscapes to portraits — but that doesn’t mean you can’t use hard light to create some “dramatic” effect (i.e. with strong contrasts).
Learning to manage and leverage these basic concepts about light can make the difference in creating more creative, meaningful, high-quality photographs.
I hope these notes are useful, even if just as a reminder. Good continuation, see you in the next post.
