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Light
TAKE DRAMATIC PHOTOS USING OUR EXPERT TIPS
How to control and enhance natural light Creative ways to shoot with ash Simple techniques for spectacular results
Master
Light
Many photographers just starting out tend to think of the role of light only in terms of exposure. But nding the best light and learning how to control it can have a huge effect on the emotional impact of your images. This book will arm you with the knowledge and techniques you need to really begin mastering light.
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Master
Light
TAKE DRAMATIC PHOTOS USING OUR EXPERT TIPS
Master
Contents
Lights character Chasing the light Improving the quality Master of light: Charlie Waite Fill-in with ash Master of light: Chris Johns Dealing with low light Light on the landscape Master of light: George D. Lepp Top 10 tips p10 p14 p16 p22 p24 p28 p30 p36 p46 p49
Light
Marcus Hawkins
Editor, Digital Camera Magazine
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Lights character
ou really begin to grow as a photographer when you start being able to read the different characteristics of light and are able to adjust your shooting accordingly. Where photographys concerned, there are four elements of light that you need to be able to recognise: its quality, colour, intensity and direction. You can control each of them to a certain degree, whether its through a shift in camera position, the use of light modiers or during image processing.
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Quality of light
You can judge the quality of light by the shadows it creates. Hard lighting from the sun on a cloudless summers day or an undiffused ashgun creates inky, sharp-edged shadows and hot highlights. Your camera will struggle to maintain detail in both, and compromises might have to be taken. Soft light early morning, late evening, a cloudy day, a misty day reduces the contrast between light and dark and produces soft-edged shadows in which details still visible. Its ideal for portraits, close-ups and revealing the glorious colours of autumn. You can improve the quality of light to some degree on a small scale using diffusors, reectors, ll-ash and the like (youll nd tips and techniques for doing just that throughout this guide), but theres very little you can do other than wait for the very best light when youre shooting landscapes.
Colour of light
We covered the colour of light comprehensively in the previous guide, but its such an important ingredient for creating images with emotional impact that we couldnt leave it out here. In general, warmer pictures produce a more pleasurable viewing experience. Colder pictures can leave use feeling exactly that. Fortunately, its one of the easiest elements of light to correct. You can change your cameras white balance setting to enhance or reduce the warmth of a scene. You can place colour correction lters in front of your lens blue to cool down a scene, amber to warm it up. Or you can simply wait until youre back home editing your images on your computer before you start changing the colour balance of your picture.
The sun rising or setting creates long shadows plan for them when you compose an image. Here, an ordinary locations been transformed by the play of light and shadow, creating a simple, powerful photograph.
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Intensity of light
Perhaps not as important in enhancing the mood of a shot as the other characteristics of light, intensity, or brightness has a crucial role to play in terms of exposure. The more light there is available, the smaller your aperture can be and yet still retain action-stopping shutter speeds. Your ISO can also be set lower so theres the potential to create a higher quality image. The more intense and hard the light is, though, the more chance there is of highlights getting blown in a digital image. Check your cameras histogram an image on an LCD monitor might seem brighter or darker than it actually is.
Direction of light
Light can illuminate your subject from three basic directions front, side and back. Each brings its own unique feel to a picture. Backlighting, for instance, can be used to provide a halo around a portrait sitter. It provides mood, drama and visual interest. It brings foliage to life and gives water an edge. The only thing to watch out for is direct light striking the front of the lens. This produces are, which reduces contrast. You might nd a lens hood particularly on a wideangle lens doesnt always prevent are. In these instances, move a piece of card or your hand close to the front of the lens to shade it from the light (just be sure that it doesnt appear in the frame). Sidelighting is great for bringing out the texture in a landscape. It reveals shape and form and gives pictures depth. Frontlighting is good for close-up portraits, particularly of birds and animals. It might not have the impact of backlighting or sidelighting, but dont limit yourself just to these.
Backlighting can enhance mood. This shot wouldnt be as atmospheric if shot from the other side of the subject, with full frontlighting.
Early morning light is usually less intense than that of the sun at midday. Youll need to work with wider apertures in order to freeze movement.
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You sunset shots dont have to be cliched skyscapes try incorporating the orb in unusual ways
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Close-up shots such as this collection of autumn leaves always benet from soft, diffused light although when water drops are present, experiment with sidelighting
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Use a reector
Diffusors are particularly suited to closerup and macro work, as therell be room to place them between the light source and the subject without them appearing in the frame. If youre dealing with a larger subject, particularly outdoors, youll probably want to reach for a ashgun or a reector. Reectors provide the more natural-looking results of the two (they only make use of the ambient light, after all) and theyre much easier to use you can see results live (no need to take a test shot, check the cameras LCD monitor and adjust output, as youll more than likely have to do with ash). You can use small reectors to bounce light precisely where you want it, or use a large one to ll in detail on a much grander scale.
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Reector options
There are many commercially available reectors, ranging in size, colour and price a simple 12 one is likely to set you back around 10, while something in the region of 6x4 is unlikely to leave you with much change from 100. Despite their cost, these types of reectors have several advantages. Theyre hard-wearing and portable, with the circular collapsible variety folding up into something approaching a quarter of their full size. Theyre also available in double-sided variations, the classic combination being white on one side, gold on the other. White retains the colour of the natural light, while the likes of silver, gold and varying combinations of both all add their own particular colour. Silver can bring a fresh sparkle to a picture, particularly a portrait, while gold can warm up skin tones well. Just dont overdo the gold try using it when shooting on a beach, as thats where viewers would expect to see golden light reected by the sand
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you can get rid of any ugly shadowing on their face. Areas to pay particular attention to are around the eyes and nose and under the chin. Wrinkles and imperfect skin will also be exaggerated by strong sidelighting placing a reector close to the opposite side of the subjects face will remove even the smallest shadows. A reector placed low will also bounce light under the brims of caps and hats you risk burning out the detail in well lit areas of a subject wearing headgear if you simply try to increase the exposure to open up the shadows instead. On a bright
day, youll be surprised how much light can be directed back onto your subject using even the simplest reector. Dont be afraid to use more than one either (try one angled to each side, plus one below the subject) but ensure you dont cause your sitter to squint by bouncing sunlight straight into their eyes. As well as providing a more attering illumination, the increase in light levels also means you can take advantage of higher shutter speeds, and consequently smaller apertures. The result? Portraits with a deeper eld of focus, sharp from nose-tip to ear.
Take advantage of natural reectors. A white door (offcamera) was used for the left shot, and a pale oor and book in this one.
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Master of light
Charlie Waite
harlie is the most admired landscape photographer in Britain today. His mastery of light and composition is clear from every one of his exquisite frames. The name of the photographic holiday workshop company he set up 11 years ago Light & Land ts like a glove. He hasnt always been a professional landscape photographer though. Originally an actor, he began taking pictures of other actors and theatrical productions in 1977. Just four years later he was commissioned to provide all the images for the National Trust book of Long Walks. Since then, there have been over twenty books featuring his stunning images, numerous exhibitions and tours all over the world. Everyone who wants to know how to lift their landscape images above the norm needs a copy of Charlies The Making of Landscape Photographs in their book collection.
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This photograph of the River Esera, Huesca, Spain was exposed at ISO 50, for 1/8th sec at f/16. Charlie attached two lters a polariser and 81A warm-up to the wideangle lens on his trusted Hasselblad. The contrast of light and shadow gives this shot a real threedimensional quality. Taken as the sun was setting, Charlie had to race against time in a matter of minutes there would be no light in the left of the frame, the bushes there would lose their glow, and the whole composition would have lost its balance.
The rst of these shots was taken without any ll-in ash. The image is dull. The second shot shows what happens when you shoot in automatic ll-ash mode the shadows have been brought up to a similar level as the lighter areas. It looks a bit hot
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Set up a test
Its worth doing your own run of test shots to begin understanding how your ash will react in different lighting situations. First, get hold of a white subject, a dark subject and mid-tone subject (visit your local toy shop and pick up some soft toys theyre ideal). Head outside on a clear day, position each one in turn within ash range and re off a set of frames, changing the ash exposure each time (make sure you allow time for your ash to fully recharge between shots). Start with a regular ash exposure, then decrease its output gradually over the next four or ve frames, until you reach -2EV. Do this for each of the three subjects, making sure the ambient lighting conditions are consistent throughout. You can then simply look at the shots on your computer to determine what atio of ll-in ash you prefer for that given lighting condition.
In this shot, we reduced the normal ash output by 1.7EV. This has provided a subtle amount of ll-in light. Shadows have been retained, but theres detail in them
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The combination of lighting from two directions lifts this shot. Watch out for overexposure on pale skin tones when the sitters wearing black clothes.
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Boost an interior
The main problem youll encounter when it comes to shooting interior shots is the mixture of light thats usually present. Depending on the location, you could end up with uorescent, tungsten, daylight and ash providing an intriguing mix of green, orange and blue light (depending on your selection of white balance). You might like this effect though. There again, you might want to produce a more natural blend of ash-lit foreground subject and a background lit by tungsten or uorescent lighting. In this case, youll need to place a strip of orange warming gel (for tungsten) or green gel (for uorescent) over your ash. You can then select the matched white balance preset on the camera and both light sources will be corrected at the same time.
To help ash blend in well with such a warm scene, place a piece of orange colour-correcting lm over the front of it. Any white balance adjustments will then affect the whole image.
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Master of light
Chris Johns
hris is the new editor of National Geographic magazine, but before he joined the management team there he spent 17 years as a contributing photographer, specialising in dramatic images of the natural world. Hes well known for his images of Africa, and in particular those taken at low light levels, where he frequently mixed ambient light with ash. Although to the untrained eye its hard to tell in the nal photographs, because he did so in subtle ways, mounting an amber lter in a soft box to blend the ash with the warm glow of a re when shooting local villagers for instance. He also used the low light of evening and dawn to introduce a sense of movement, combining slow shutter speeds with a burst of ash, to retain sharpness in key areas. Chris has a new challenge at National Geographic. Hes the editor wholl guide the magazine into the digital age. Well be keeping a keen eye on the results
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Heres a fantastic shot of Bushman tribespeople in Namibia, gathering by the re for a night of ritual dancing. The image feels alive. Its full of contrasts cool blue sky and warm relight; blurred motion and frozen fragments.
Shoot a silhouette
There are two key things you need to think about when trying to shoot a silhouette where youre going to meter from and where youre going to position your subject. First up, switch your cameras exposure mode to Manual, or be prepared to make use of its AE Lock feature when youre in Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority. Make sure your metering patterns set to Spot (Multi-segment metering patterns will generally attempt to increase the exposure and bring detail back into the subject youre trying to render as a silhouette). Take a reading from an area of the sky which seems fairly light in tone (try near the horizon), then open up 1EV from that reading, to make it a little brighter than mid-tone. Following that, all youve got to do is position your camera so that the subjects youll be capturing as silhouettes arent merging or obscuring each other the most successful shots work because the individual shapes are distinct.
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Slow it down
Therell be times when the light levels drop so low that youve got no option but to work with really slow shutter speeds, even when youre shooting at your lens widest aperture. Not a problem if your cameras mounted to a sturdy tripod and youre shooting scenes where theres no movement. But when things are moving? Time to get creative, opting for those artistic studies of motion and colour. Mount your camera on a tripod to ensure its rock-steady throughout those long exposure times. Make sure you include a combination of stationary and moving objects to provide the contrast that makes pictures come alive. Try panning with the movement and keep at least one part of a subject reasonable sharp and discernable in the blurred area to provide a place for your viewers to jump in (and out) of the image. Watch your distance though subjects closer to the lens will require a faster shutter speed to freeze some of their motion
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Once you discover how slow sync mode can transform your photography, its sure to become the ash mode youll reach for more than any other. Some ashes can drop below their sync speed (usually 1/60 sec) as a default, others youll have to manually set to slow sync you need to read your manual to know how your ash will react. If your ash unit either a built-in one or external dedicated one has a rear curtain sync mode, its worth combining this with slow sync to allow the blurred image
captured by the slow shutter speed to trail behind the sharp image frozen by the ash. Your subject will appear to move backwards if you dont. The only problem with this mode is that it becomes harder to capture the peak of the action particularly if youre panning with a moving subject. You wont be able to see through the viewnder while the shutters open during the long exposure, so its hard to judge where your subject will be when the ash is triggered. It becomes a case of biting the bullet shoot lots of frames.
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Cheer up, son! At least hes adopted a pose that he can hold for a long period of time photography by candlelight means slow exposures, even with wide-open apertures.
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Add depth
Just like placing contrasting shapes, colours and sizes of subjects in the same frame can yield some of the most exciting photographs, so to will the inclusion of contrasting light. It can help give your landscape photographs an effective sense of depth to give the 2D image captured on your cameras sensor a three dimensional quality. Think in terms of contrasting bright against dark, light against shadow building up layers which lead you through a picture. A well lit foreground subject set against a dark, brooding background can create an air of tension. Imagine beyond that dark area is another band of hills, spotlit by the sun, and beyond that still, hills in shadow. Its this process of layering the light that leads your eye easily though a picture.
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Look for landscapes scarred by ridges and grooves to make the most of rich, warm sidelighting.
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on the right side of the image are burnt out where the cameras given more exposure bias to the shadowed area. We reduced the exposure by 0.7EV for the second shot. Again, the large rock at the base of the steps is too hot. Reducing the exposure by a total of 1.3EV for the third shot has ensured the rocks have now returned to a brightness level which matches the way the scene appeared to our eyes. The third image provides a more usable start-point for imageprocessing, although the second one would likely provide a better result if you print directly from the camera. For more exposure solutions, see our previous guide, Master Exposure.
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Shoot water
Seek out rivers, streams, lakes and pools when shooting landscapes. They bring the land to life.
A polarizer will help reduce glaring surface reections on the water on a sunny day. But on a gloomy day, its those very highlights that youre trying to preserve, in order to add interest.
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Invest in a neutral density graduated lter. The reection will be darker than the sky an ND grad will help you balance the exposure. Avoid over-ltering though start with a 1-stop grad.
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Be persistent
Dont resist returning to a promising photographic location over time in order to capture the scene under different lighting conditions. Seasonally, the light will be drastically different, but it also changes on a much smaller scale. What is in sunlight in the morning could well be in shadow by the afternoon. Over just half an hour at dawn or dusk, the quality and colour of light can vary dramatically. Find the view that pleases you most and stick with it and dont be satised with the rst frame you make.
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Master of light
George D. Lepp
ne of the most prolic phographers in the United States, George Lepp has been capturiing breathtaking images with his camera and lecturing on photographic techniques for over three decades. He specialises in photography of the natural world and has been at the forefront of the digital revolution hes the founder and director of the Lepp Institute of Digital Imaging in California, where interested parties can learn about digital capture, image-editing and printing. Hes one of Canons Explorers of Light, a group of 60 world-class photographers who share their knowledge and passion for photography through seminars and personal appearances. They also get to use the latest Canon EOS kit.
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Trying to select an image which typies Georges approach to capturing light is a hard process a man whos been a top-class image maker for over 30 years tends to build up a vast collection of stunning photographs. But this leapt out at us. It just screams LIGHT!
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BRING OUT COLOURS Shoot saturated colours such as autumn foliage on an overcast or cloudy-bright day.
USE REFLECTORS Youll get more natural results if you use a reector to ll-in detail, rather than reaching for a ashgun.
KEEP SILHOUETTES SIMPLE Make sure you retain the distinctive shape of a subject dont let it bleed into other silhouettes.
ADD FLASH SUBTLY Avoid the overashed look reduce your ash output when shooting in daylight. AVOID FLARE Shield the front element of your lens with your hand when shooting into the sun.
GO SLOW When shooting in low light, combine a slow shutter speed with a burst of ash for interesting results. BE PERSISTENT Inspiring views deserve inspiring light dont be satised until you get it.
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WATCH YOUR METER Your camera can be fooled by unusual lighting conditions. Spot meter for total control. ADD LIGHT IN FOG When shooting mist or fog, increase your exposure by 1EV to bring back the brightness.
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