Tuesday Tips Tricks and Techniques - Finding better light

Light, the crux of all photography. After all photography is simply capturing light but not all light is equal. Summer light is different then Winter light. Morning and evening light is different then afternoon light. And even at the same time of day, light reacts differently depending on how and where it falls. Light is also constantly changing. Clouds move across the sun, overcast days mute the light while trees and buildings block and shape the light. Capturing better photos of anything depends largely on the quality of light.

You will not likely see any spectacular landscapes captured during high noon. There is actually a term for professional and hardcore landscape photographers; wet bellies. This is because to get the best light for a landscape, they are out in the very early morning hours crawling around while the ground is yet saturated with dew.

The above shot was taken just before noon in late november. I was playing with my settings and getting shots of the kids feeding the birds. So while it is not a traditional landscape, it does give an idea of the light on the landscape. Being late Fall you can see the shadows are longer for that time of day since the sun is much lower in the sky. If you were to shoot this same shot in the Summer, the light would be almost directly overhead and much harsher. But lets see how the landscape looks at a better time of day.

This shot was taken at 6:22AM. It was cold and dark when I setup the shot. Very cold for being at the beach but it was well worth it. The light is soft and golden and it shapes the landscape beautifully. Composition and editing aside, if you want to take better landscape photos you have to be up early. Evening light is very beautiful as well, but in my opinion the morning light is just better and you have very few people out at that time of day. Most of them start arriving as soon as the sun peeks above the horizon but you want to shoot before that happens. Of course many of the truly great landscapes happen when a photographer finds a location and visits it often as they wait for the perfect light.

Photographing people is no different, you need to find or make the best light to capture them. Let's have a look back at one of the first "portraits" I took of my daughter.

This shot was taken with a Canon 7D dslr with a canon 70-200mm f 2.8 lens. For some of you that may not mean much, but lets just say that that is a $3,000+ gear setup capable of capturing incredible photos. The photo above is not an incredible photo by any means. It is a photo of my daughter and if that is all I had I am sure I would think it was adorable; I likely thought it was a pretty good photo when I took it. This was captured in direct sunlight in the middle of the day. Her eyes are dark with no light falling on them and the photo lacks contrast. With the gear I was using I should have been able to capture a stunning portrait, but I did not understand lighting at all at that time. I figured you put a subject in light and you could get a good shot with expensive gear. Luckily I was, and still am, part of an online photo community that was not afraid to point out my short comings and what all was wrong with this photo. I am glad they did because of that I have improved and now have some beautiful photos of my children.

The gear is essentially the same in these shots and had little to do with how they came out. True, the gear helps blur the background and will help with lower light photography but the light is the real hero. In the photo of my daughter the light is directly behind her and I exposed for her face. That makes the background lighter than her but with a vignette and some editing it all comes together. The important thing is that the light on her face is softer and there is contrast separating her from the background. And notice her eyes, they have a sparkle and life to them that the first photo I shared did not have. For my son, the light is off to his right side (camera left) and bring a little bit of shadow to his left side. If you don't like the light that is there, you can always bring your own.

So some tips to capture better photos of your kids, or spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend etc...

Get out of the direct light.

Put the light behind them, or to the side and expose for the skin.

Make sure there is a light showing in their eyes.

Use a reflector to bounce some light back onto them. In the first photo I used a gold reflector for that, in the last photo it is just all natural.

If at all possible, shoot earlier in the morning or latter in the evening when the sun is not so high in the sky.

Find open shade.

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Seriously though, there is so much to learn about how light works and reacts with the surroundings that I couldn't cover everything in one blog post. So check back next Tuesday where we will continue our exploration of light. We will talk more about open shade, light modifiers, natural light modifiers and artificial lighting. Join me and I will help you to capture better photos that will last you a lifetime.  And soon you will learn how much you can do with light.

Come back next week where we will discuss using a reflector, both artificial and natural. See you soon. And if you have any specific questions leave them below in the comments. I love to hear from you.