Thinking about the light #photography
I take lots of different kinds of photos. Sometimes it is landscapes and other times I’m asked to photograph groups of people.
I’m always thinking about the light. A sunny day with lots of light doesn’t always give us the best conditions. A day when we have even white cloud gives us a better-diffused light than when we have bright sunlight. Often in bright sunlight, the shadows are really dark and despite the bright light we need to use fill flash to remove the dark shadows. Photographs send out a message and in this photo the message was simple. I wanted to say how busy Wednesbury market was!
Grey sky
The sky was quite grey but I still had plenty of light. I wanted a photo that would give an impression. I didn’t need the people to be in sharp focus or identifiable. This following photo was the same day and you can see the difference when the sun came out.
Balloon Modeller
This shot (below) of a balloon modeller was shot with a wide aperture and again the sky was quite cloudy and dark but with a wide aperture you can still get a fast shutter speed and a sharp image. Notice that I cropped the image to an aspect of 5:4. My camera takes the pictures at an aspect of 6:4. Many photographers turn the camera 90 degrees for a shot like this but I find it easier to take the shot in landscape and then crop the image.
Later in the day
The sky is cloudy in this picture but the hue is totally different. With landscape photography, as opposed to event photography, I get to choose when and where. This shot (below) was taken later in the day when the light was softer and warmer.
Shadows
There are shadows in this picture but hardly noticeable. Taking landscapes later in the day can be a problem because although the light gives a warmer and softer hue, the sun is low in the sky and so creates long shadows. At this time of year, the end of May and beginning of June, we have long days and the light in the early evening tends to be quite good without the shadows being too long.
Composition
Look at the composition of today’s photos. They all have something in the background and something quite close to the camera in the foreground to provide some depth to the photo. The composition is important and the more depth you can get, the more interesting the picture looks.
