Photography is all about light. In this blog I use photos taken during the last month to illustrate a few of the concepts I have taught for years to people wanting to improve their photography. Maybe they will be useful to you, even if you have “graduated” to a smart phone. All of the photos in this blog were taken with a “real” camera — a Nikon DSLR or an Olympus mirrorless camera.
Light can come in many colors, although we often don’t notice the colors. Consider the photo above. Part of this brick on a walkway leading to the Sugar River Covered Bridge in Sunapee Harbor has a blue hue because it is in the shade and it “sees” the blue sky. The part that is in the sun sees the much warmer (yellower) sun.
This is one of many bricks that were purchased and engraved to help finance the construction of this covered bridge. Do you know who purchased it? He is a Sunapee native. There are two hints on the brick. The answer will be at the end of this blog.
Light can be hard or soft. Hard light comes from a small light source relative to the subject and causes shadows. Even though the sun is huge, it is small (almost like a point source) relative to most objects, so it creates hard light. The photo above is an example of hard light.
Hard light is directional and can light the front, side, or back of the subject. Frontlight illuminates the front of the subject and comes from behind the photographer. If the photographer is shooting toward the light source, it is called backlight.
Soft light comes from a very large light source compared with the subject and is normally shadowless. Outdoors, it is most often the result of an overcast sky or a foggy day.
Soft Light
The photo below taken today of 50 cords of wood in Sutton is an example of soft light. The light is slightly directional. You can tell it comes from the left.
If I’m photographing moving water, I want an overcast day rather than a sunny one. Waterfalls normally look best in soft light, and overcast days help keep shutter speed slow.
Soft light is great for flowers. I feel that photos of flowers and gardens are much better on overcast days or even in light rain than in bright midday sun.
Soft light is also good for conveying a peaceful mood or creating a photo with minimal detail as in these four photos from Sunapee.
If I’m photographing in the woods or photographing people or animals, I normally like the light to be soft. Soft light can also be good when photographing buildings, if you are not trying to show the overall shape and construction but merely some details along a wall or side.
Soft light can also be useful when photographing “macro” subjects such as this dark paper wasp on a peony and a gray tree frog, out-of-place but well camouflaged, on a road.
Sometimes directional light can be quite soft. When it is from the side, as in the photo below along the rail trail in Enfield, it tends to provide an additional clue of depth in the photo. In fact this photo has many visual clues that give it a three dimensional character, including texture receding, decreasing size of trees, and converging lines.
Early morning mist with light from behind the subject — backlight — can be quite soft even though the light is directional.
Sometimes, especially early in the very early morning, when the light is still soft overall because the sun is not shining on most of the scene, it might be hard to tell the direction of the light. Consider the two photos below taken from almost the same spot at the same time in the Mink Brook Nature Preserve in Hanover. Where is the light coming from?
In the top photo, the sun is just rising behind the trees in the distance to the east. In the bottom photo, the early sun is shining on the trees in the background to the west.
These two photos also illustrate something about photographing reflections. Reflections in water are normally best when the water is in shade but the thing being reflected is in the sun.
Directional Light
Frontlight is my preferred light direction for birds as seen in the three photos below from Bradford, VT. The first photo looks a bit like a Black-capped Chickadee, but it is actually a warbler.
I was fortunate a few days ago that the female Common Merganser that flew past me was basically front-lit by the sun behind me.
And of course the ultimate front-lit photo is of a full moon. Below are two photos of our recent super moon early in the mornings May 25 and May 26.
Sidelight provides a wonderful clue of depth because you can walk through the image on the “ladder” of sun and shadow.
Below is an example of sidelight coming from the wrong side. I would have much rather had this Common Gallinule at the West Lebanon Wetlands facing left toward the light than away from the light, as it is. But, in any case, I was fortunate to get this photo of quite a rare bird for this area.
Normally the least desired light direction is overhead, as the sun is most of the day. That is why most nature and landscape photographers are up very early or stay out until the hours around sunset. But sometimes you do not have a choice and mid-day light can be made work with the right subjects.
Backlight is perhaps my favorite light direction. Maybe that is because it is the most challenging.
I have no qualms photographically shooting into the sun, although to safeguard my eyes I will almost always use live view on a DSLR or use a mirrorless camera. The photo in the slideshow that follows with the sun at the top right of the panorama and the Connecticut River in the middle ground was taken at River Park, a very nice and still quite open area in West Lebanon.
Occasionally backlight can work for birds, especially if they are perched on something that looks good with backlighting as with this Red-winged Blackbird.
If I do find myself in the woods on a sunny day, I will most likely shoot backlit as in this photo of ferns at the Mink Brook Nature Preserve.
Answer to the Quiz
“Walk this way” is a great caption for a paving brick leading to the entrance of a covered bridge seen below. It is also the title of a famous song by Steven Tallarico of Sunapee.
He is better known as Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Note the ST “signature” on the brick. Here is where it sits at the entrance to the bridge. The red outline is my doing on the image, not on the brick.
