Complete photography guide

Master
Light
TAKE DRAMATIC PHOTOS
USING OUR EXPERT TIPS

■ How to control and enhance natural light

■ Creative ways to shoot with flash
■ Simple techniques for spectacular results VITAL
SKILLS
GUIDE
Master
Light
Many photographers just starting out tend to
think of the role of light only in terms of
exposure. But finding 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.

Light 3
 Master
Light
TAKE DRAMATIC PHOTOS
USING OUR EXPERT TIPS
 Contents
■ Light’s character p10

■ Chasing the light p14

■ Improving the quality p16

■ Master of light: Charlie Waite p22

■ Fill-in with flash p24

■ Master of light: Chris Johns p28

■ Dealing with low light p30

■ Light on the landscape p36

■ Master of light: George D. Lepp p46

■ Top 10 tips p49

Light 7
Start painting with light
O ur three previous photography guides have
covered composition, exposure and colour
– now it’s time to look at the element which is the key
influence for all three aspects. As a photographer, you
need to learn to love light, appreciate its endless
subtleties and try to make the most of its mood
swings. Soon you’ll feel your heart race a little faster as
the black clouds of a passing storm tear apart and rich,
golden light burns through to transform even the most
mundane scene (just don’t forget to carry your camera
at all times – you’ll kick yourself if you miss capturing
such an event). Don’t pull your hair out if the light isn’t
‘right’ though. You just need to learn a few tricks that
can help you rescue the situation – this book will show
you them. We’ll give you ideas for taming harsh light,
show you how to make the most of falling light levels
and how to use flash in understated ways. We don’t
cover studio lighting in this book – that will come later.
Instead, we focus on natural light – how to capture it,
how to enhance and how to use it in great new ways.

Marcus Hawkins
Editor, Digital Camera Magazine

8 Light
Light 9
Light’s
character
Y 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
photography’s 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 it’s through a shift in
camera position, the use of light modifiers or
during image processing.

10 Light
 Quality of light
You can judge the quality of light by the shadows
it creates. Hard lighting – from the sun on
a cloudless summer’s day or an undiffused
flashgun – 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 detail’s still visible.
It’s 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, reflectors, fill-flash and the like
(you’ll find tips and techniques for doing just that
throughout this guide), but there’s very little you
can do other than wait for the very best light
when you’re shooting landscapes.
The sun rising or setting creates long
shadows – plan for them when you
compose an image. Here, an ordinary location’s
been transformed by the play of light and
shadow, creating a simple, powerful photograph.
Colour of light
We covered the colour of light comprehensively
in the previous guide, but it’s such an important
ingredient for creating images with emotional
impact that we couldn’t leave it out here. In
general, ‘warmer’ pictures produce a more
pleasurable viewing experience. ‘Colder’ pictures
can leave use feeling exactly that. Fortunately, it’s
one of the easiest elements of light to ‘correct’.
You can change your camera’s white balance
setting to enhance or reduce the warmth of a
scene. You can place colour correction filters in
front of your lens – blue to cool down a scene,
amber to warm it up. Or you can simply wait
until you’re back home editing your images on
your computer before you start changing the
colour balance of your picture.
Light 11
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 there’s 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 camera’s histogram
– an image on an LCD monitor might seem
brighter or darker than it actually is.
12 Light
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
flare, which reduces contrast. You might find a
lens hood – particularly on a wideangle lens –
doesn’t always prevent flare. 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 doesn’t 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 don’t limit yourself just to these.
Backlighting can enhance mood.
This shot wouldn’t 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. You’ll need to work with wider
apertures in order to freeze movement.
Light 13
Chasing
the light
O nce you start getting a feel for light, you’ll
search out the times of day where the
quality of light is generally at its best – at the
start and end of the day during the ‘golden
hours’. The sun’s rays have to pass through more
of the atmosphere during sunrise and sunset.
This filters out more of the wavelengths at the
blue end of the colour spectrum, leaving us to
see wavelengths at the warmer end. This is why
the light has a ‘colder’ quality at midday, when
the sun is directly overhead and passing through
a much thinner part of the atmosphere. A sunset
tends to produce a richer, warmer image than a
sunrise because atmospheric pollution’s built
up throughout the day, scattering the light
still further. Sunsets and sunrises are probably
the most cliched photographic subjects
known to man – but don’t resist capturing a
truly breathtaking one when the moment
presents itself.

You sunset shots don’t have to be

cliched skyscapes – try incorporating
the orb in unusual ways…

14 Light
Get there early
Many photographers prefer shooting at dawn –
that way they’re not fighting against falling light
levels as they would be at the end of the day.
Lakes and rivers also tend to be more still at this
time of the day – perfect for capturing
reflections. Early morning light can have more of
a sharper, clearer quality than at sunset – and
shadows tend to creep on you rather fast at the
end of the day. For those of us holding down a
day job, it’s unlikely that we can escape work
commitments to catch the sunset on a regular
basis – but getting up early and getting out
before the sun rises can be an option.
You need to make sure you’re in position and
ready to start shooting before the sun actually
clips the horizon though, as the ‘magic’ light only
lasts for a few minutes. Don’t include the sun’s
bright orb in your frame when you’re metering –
it’s likely to cause severe underexposure in your
shot. Instead, take a spot meter reading from a
bright area of sky, lock the reading in and
recompose with the sun back in the frame.
Bracket exposures at +/- 0.5EV around this
initial exposure.

Light 15
Improving
the quality
D o you want hard or soft light? Both
types have their purpose in
photography. If it’s striking, graphic shots
with black, hard-edged shadows you
want, seek out raw, hard light – when
the sun’s high in a clear sky or you’re
shooting with on-camera flash. Chances
are, though, that you’ll want soft,
diffused light more often than not. On a
bright, cloudy day, the sky acts like a
giant softbox. You’ll have a much easier
time metering for a scene as the contrast
will have been reduced – no deep
shadows or bright highlights to try and
rectify later on your computer. You’ll be
able to reveal much finer detail, and
colour appears more saturated.
16 Light
Soften hard light
The reason hard lights are exactly that, is
because they’re a point-source of light
relative to the size of the subject of your
photograph, resulting in unbalanced
exposures. The sun’s big, but so far away
that, on a cloudless day it too becomes a
small, harsh light source. But it can be
softened to produce a much more
flattering result. Commercial diffusion
panels are available – thin pieces of semi-
transparent material which, when held
between the sun and the subject, spread
and soften the light, removing glaring
highlights and opening up the detail in
shadows. Try using a sheet of tracing paper
for macro subjects. When you’re working
with small subjects using a macro lens, a
flashgun held close to them effectively
becomes a large softbox relative to their
size (particularly when it’s fitted with its
own diffusor)..
Close-up shots such as this collection of
autumn leaves always benefit from soft,
diffused light – although when water drops
are present, experiment with sidelighting…
Use a reflector
Diffusors are particularly suited to closer-
up and macro work, as there’ll be room to
place them between the light source and
the subject without them appearing in the
frame. If you’re dealing with a larger
subject, particularly outdoors, you’ll
probably want to reach for a flashgun or a
reflector. Reflectors provide the more
natural-looking results of the two (they
only make use of the ambient light, after
all) and they’re much easier to use – you
can see results ‘live’ (no need to take a test
shot, check the camera’s LCD monitor and
adjust output, as you’ll more than likely
have to do with flash). You can use small
reflectors to bounce light precisely where
you want it, or use a large one to fill in
detail on a much grander scale.

Light 17
Reflector options
There are many commercially available reflectors,
ranging in size, colour and price – a simple 12”
one is likely to set you back around £10, while
something in the region of 6’x4’ is unlikely to
leave you with much change from £100. Despite
their cost, these types of reflectors have several
advantages. They’re hard-wearing and portable,
with the circular collapsible variety folding up into
something approaching a quarter of their full size.
They’re 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 don’t overdo the
gold – try using it when shooting on a beach, as
that’s where viewers would expect to see golden
light reflected by the sand…

18 Light
 There’s no need to spend
a fortune
If you can’t afford a good quality
reflector, or you simply want to
supplement your current set-up,
why not make your own? The
simplest sort is a sheet of plain
white card. This will provide a
soft, even illumination for the
surface you’re bouncing light
onto. For a sharper, cleaner
quality to the light, reach for
aluminium foil. Simply crinkle it up
into a ball, uncrinkle it, and stick it
to a piece of card. If you don’t make
the surface wrinkled, you’ll end up
with a big, hard slice of reflected light
that feels ‘artificial’ to the viewer. This
might be exactly the effect you’re after
though. A small mirror provides an even more
crisp, directional source of bounced light – it can
be useful for isolating details in a graphic way in
a large shot, or for really adding punch to a
macro shot.
Find a natural reflector
If you find yourself in a situation where you don’t
have a reflector close to hand, look for an
alternative source of reflected light. An open book
or newspaper positioned close to the face of a
sitter can make a simple alternative. If you’re on a
beach, get your subject close to the sand, which
bounces back a surprising amount of light (if you
can find a white beach towel, even better). The
cold light reflected by snow in winter can provide
excellent fill light, while the rippling surface of a
river, stream or pool, full of catchlights on a sunny
day, provides a beautiful quality of illumination. Be
aware of your camera reading for bright
backgrounds though – it could be fooled into
underexposing the scene. It’s better to get in close
to your subject and take a reading from them
directly. Remember to increase the exposure for
pale skin and decrease it for dark skin.
Light 19
How to brighten up a face
A portrait shoot’s the classic situation for
using a reflector, particularly when it’s
outdoors on a clear, bright day where, if you
can’t find an area of shade in which your
subject can stand, you’ll have to deal with
high contrast lighting. The golden rule is don’t
position your subject where they face directly
into bright sunlight – they’ll end up squinting,
which isn’t flattering. Instead, pose them so
that the light’s coming from over their
shoulder or from an angle to the side and use
a reflector to bounce light back into the
darker areas. Your subject will thank you if
20 Light
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
reflector close to the opposite side of the
subject’s face will remove even the smallest
shadows. A reflector 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
Take advantage of
natural reflectors.
A white door (off-
camera) was used
for the left shot,
and a pale floor
and book in
this one.
day, you’ll be surprised how much light can
be directed back onto your subject using
even the simplest reflector. Don’t be afraid
to use more than one either (try one angled
to each side, plus one below the subject) –
but ensure you don’t cause your sitter to
squint by bouncing sunlight straight into
their eyes.
As well as providing a more flattering
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
field of focus, sharp from nose-tip to ear.
Light 21
Master of
light
Charlie Waite

C 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 – fits like a glove. He hasn’t 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 Charlie’s ‘The Making of
Landscape Photographs’ in their book collection.

22 Light
 This photograph of the River
Esera, Huesca, Spain was
exposed at ISO 50, for 1/8th
sec at f/16. Charlie attached two filters –
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 three-
dimensional 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.

To learn more about Charlie

Waite, pay a visit to
charliewaite.com.

Light 23
Fill-in
with flash
A lthough it doesn’t soften the quality of
harsh midday light, a burst of fill flash can
open up shadows to provide a more pleasing,
balanced exposure. The key to making natural-
looking shots is to ensure the fill-in light is subtle.
You don’t want the artificial light to overpower
the natural light – it shouldn’t be obvious that
you’ve used it. The idea is to expose for the
highlights – if there’s time, switch to spot-
metering for precise measurement, but be aware
of the tone of the area you’re metering from
(you’ll need to add a little more exposure if the
subject’s lighter than mid-tone, for instance). You
then let the flash pop some life back into the dark
areas. Today’s flashes are generally very
advanced with effective automatic fill-in modes.
However, for the most part they tend to produce
an obviously ‘flashed’ look, with shadows
brought up to a similar exposure level as the
lighter areas. Try reducing the output further for
a more natural result…

The first of these shots was taken

without any fill-in flash. The image
is dull. The second shot shows what
happens when you shoot in automatic
fill-flash mode – the shadows have
been brought up to a similar level as
the lighter areas. It looks a bit ‘hot’

24 Light

In this shot, we reduced the
normal flash output by 1.7EV. This
has provided a subtle amount of fill-in
light. Shadows have been retained,
but there’s detail in them
Set up a test
It’s worth doing your own run of test shots to
begin understanding how your flash 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 – they’re ideal). Head outside on a
clear day, position each one in turn within flash
range and fire off a set of frames, changing the
flash exposure each time (make sure you allow
time for your flash to fully recharge between
shots). Start with a regular flash exposure, then
decrease its output gradually over the next four
or five 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 fill-in flash you prefer for that given
lighting condition.
Light 25
Shoot into the sun
Automatic balanced fill-in modes on flashes
come into their own when you’re shooting into
the sun. Here, you don’t want the fill-in light to
be too subtle, or you’ll end up with an
underexposed main subject. A well-balanced
flash-lit portrait taken against a clear blue sky can
look stunning, for instance. It’s also worth
seeking out a situation where you can isolate a
backlit person against a shadowy area – their
rimlit hair and skin will appear to glow against the
dark background (be wary of the camera being
tricked into overexposure by such a backdrop),
while the burst of flash brings the exposure on
the face and body in shadow back to the correct
level. To achieve more of a surreal quality in an
outdoor shot, try underexposing the ambient
light (spot meter a mid-tone in the background
and reduce the exposure by 0.7EV to 1EV as
starting point). This will make your flash-exposed
foreground subject ‘pop’ from its surroundings..

The combination of lighting from

two directions lifts this shot. Watch
out for overexposure on pale skin tones
when the sitter’s wearing black clothes.

26 Light
Boost an interior
The main problem you’ll encounter when it
comes to shooting interior shots is the mixture of
light that’s usually present. Depending on the
location, you could end up with fluorescent,
tungsten, daylight and flash 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 flash-lit foreground subject and a background
lit by tungsten or fluorescent lighting. In this case,
you’ll need to place a strip of orange warming gel
(for tungsten) or green gel (for fluorescent) over
your flash. 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 flash blend in well with such

a ‘warm’ scene, place a piece of
orange colour-correcting film over the front
of it. Any white balance adjustments will
then affect the whole image.

Light 27
Master of
light
Chris Johns

C 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. He’s well known for his images of Africa,
and in particular those taken at low light levels, where
he frequently mixed ambient light with flash. Although
to the untrained eye it’s hard to tell in the final
photographs, because he did so in subtle ways,
mounting an amber filter in a soft box to blend the
flash with the warm glow of a fire 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 flash, to
retain sharpness in key areas.
Chris has a new challenge at National
Geographic. He’s the editor who’ll guide the
magazine into the digital age. We’ll be keeping a
keen eye on the results…

28 Light
 Here’s a fantastic shot of
Bushman tribespeople
in Namibia, gathering by the
fire for a night of ritual dancing. The
image feels alive. It’s full of contrasts –
cool blue sky and warm firelight; blurred
motion and frozen fragments.

Look for more of Chris

Johns’ work at www.
nationalgeographic.com.

Light 29
Dealing with
low light
W hen light levels start to fall, don’t feel you
have to immediately start charging up
your flash – it has the potential to really spoil the
mood of a shot. Pick the right subject and get
creative, and you’ll be able to continue taking
photos using natural light for longer than you
might imagine. Experiment with increasing the
exposure level of a shot made at low ambient
light levels, to restore its brightness (be wary of
LCD monitors which make the image appear
brighter than it actually is – always check the
histogram). Increase the saturation of the colours
to make a scene come alive. Stop down the
aperture to induce slow shutter speeds and
capture movement as a blur.
30 Light
Shoot a silhouette
There are two key things you need to think about
when trying to shoot a silhouette – where you’re
going to meter from and where you’re going to
position your subject. First up, switch your
camera’s exposure mode to Manual, or be
prepared to make use of its AE Lock feature when
you’re in Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority.
Make sure your metering pattern’s set to Spot
(Multi-segment metering patterns will generally
attempt to increase the exposure and bring detail
back into the subject you’re 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 you’ve got to do is position your camera
so that the subjects you’ll be capturing as
silhouettes aren’t merging or obscuring each other
– the most successful shots work because the
individual shapes are distinct.
Light 31
Slow it down
There’ll be times when the light levels drop so low
that you’ve got no option but to work with really
slow shutter speeds, even when you’re shooting
at your lens’ widest aperture. Not a problem if
your camera’s mounted to a sturdy tripod and
you’re shooting scenes where there’s 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 it’s 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

32 Light
Add slow sync flash
Although a burst of flash can ruin some shots
taken in low light levels – resulting in the
classic underexposed background and rabbit-
caught-in-the-headlights look of a subject
within the range of your flash – once it’s
married to a slow sync mode, it can provide
an incredibly atmospheric exposure. This
mode allows the natural light to register an
exposure on your camera’s sensor – including
any blurred movement – along with a
moment frozen in time by the burst of flash.
Once you discover how slow sync mode can
transform your photography, it’s sure to
become the flash mode you’ll reach for more
than any other. Some flashes can drop below
their sync speed (usually 1/60 sec) as a
default, others you’ll have to manually set to
slow sync – you need to read your manual to
know how your flash will react.
If your flash unit – either a built-in one or
external dedicated one – has a rear curtain
sync mode, it’s 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 flash.
Your subject will appear to move backwards
if you don’t. The only problem with this
mode is that it becomes harder to capture the
peak of the action – particularly if you’re
panning with a moving subject. You won’t be
able to see through the viewfinder while the
shutter’s open during the long exposure, so
it’s hard to judge where your subject will be
when the flash is triggered. It becomes a case
of biting the bullet – shoot lots of frames.
Light 33
Candlelight and firelight
The glow of a flame gives you a soft, warm light which is
perfect for creating atmospheric portraits. If you’re
photographing someone by candlelight, be sure to include all
or part of the flame in the picture – that way it won’t look like
a white balance ‘error’ on your behalf. If shooting a portrait
by candlelight, you’ll need to increase the ISO to 800 or 1600
and open the aperture wide to get a fast enough shutter
speed to stop any subject movement. Mount your camera on
a tripod to prevent camera shake as well. The key is not to
trust your meter in this situation. If you’ve got a large area of
darkness in the frame it could fool your camera into
increasing the exposure. Instead, move in close to your sitter
and take a meter reading off their face – once you’ve
positioned the candle in such a way that it’s not causing ugly
shadowing across their features. Be careful not to block any of
the candlelight hitting them or take a reading from an area in
shadow. Adjust the exposure according to the sitter’s skin
tone (open up for lighter skin, close down for darker skin) and
recompose your shot.
When shooting fires, it can create an interesting effect if
you select a small aperture and slow shutter speed (work in
Aperture priority to let the camera select a corresponding
shutter speed). This will introduce movement and blur to the
flames, while the logs or coals underneath remain still.
Remember to mount your camera on a tripod…

Cheer up, son! At least he’s adopted

a pose that he can hold for a long
period of time – photography by
candlelight means slow exposures, even
with wide-open apertures.

34 Light
Light 35
Light on the landscape
I f you want to capture the spirit of a landscape,
you’re going to have to wait for the ‘right light’.
Unlike close-up work, where you can control and
manipulate the light to suit the subject, there’s no
way you can control the lighting over the large area
of land. You need to be prepared to wait – and you
might well find that your most meaningful shots are
taken when every other photographer has packed
up and gone home. While the sun’s low on the
horizon, its raking light causes long, deep shadows
to reach out over the land. Unlike a portrait, where
you’re usually working to remove shadows, it’s the
play of light and dark caused by strong sidelighting
which adds texture and form to landscapes.

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 camera’s
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. It’s this process of layering the
light that leads your eye easily though a picture.

36 Light
 Look for landscapes scarred by ridges
and grooves to make the most of
rich, warm sidelighting.

Look for balance

With strong sidelighting, as exhibited in this
picture here, you need to pay careful
consideration to the composition. The deep
shadows created can overwhelm a shot if they’re
not balanced well with brighter areas of an
image. Cover up the small, bright area of rock on
the bottom-left of this shot with your thumb –
does the composition look better with it in place,
or when it’s removed? Is it a distraction, or does it
help balance the area in shadow with the bright
strip on the horizon? You’ll need to make these
decisions quickly – light of this quality doesn’t
tend to last long.

Light 37
Light up the city
Don’t simply head for the country or coast
when great light’s available. Cityscapes can
prove immensely rewarding to shoot during the
morning or evening. Look for the low
sidelighting and long shadows to give structures
shape and form at this time of day. Isolate
details with a medium telephoto zoom
(something which a maximum reach of around
200mm should meet most needs when
mounted on cameras with a 1.6 crop factor).
Find windows reflecting the cooler sky
contrasting against brickwork bathed in the
sun’s warm light.
In this shot, shadows become the driving
compositional element. We spot-metered off
the brickwork in sunlight, rotated the camera to
find a dynamic angle and zoomed in to exclude
distracting elements (lamposts, mainly).

38 Light
The trouble with sidelighting
We’ve seen that sidelighting provides
excellent modelling for landscapes and
buildings. The only problem is, if you shoot
these scenes using a multi-segment or centre-
weighted metering pattern, all those shadows
are likely to fool your camera into
overexposing – it will try to make the dark
shadows closer to mid-tone in value. This
results in any brighter areas of the scene
picked out by the sun becoming grossly
overexposed and losing all detail.
Take this series of shots above. The first
one was shot using multi-segment metering
in Aperture priority, with no adjustment to
the metered value (1/160 at f/9). The rocks
on the right side of the image are burnt out
where the camera’s 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 image-
processing, 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.
Light 39
Capture the elements
If it’s raining heavily, angle yourself towards the light –
backlighting makes raindrops sparkle. Offset them
against a dark background to maximise the effect. If
you want to freeze the drops, select a shutter speed of
around 1/125 sec or faster – opt for 1/60 sec or slower
to render them as streaks of light. As with most ‘action’
shots, it’s best to fire off several frames in quick
succession, then check the LCD monitor to judge the
best arrangement of drops/lines.
40 Light
Look for quite moments
While backlighting can be loud and attention-
grabbing, it can also be used in more subtle ways. Take
this coastal shot, for instance. It’s backlit, although
there’s no rimlighting or glow. Instead, the overcast day
has created the perfect light for this striking graphic
image. It would lose its power if there was any more
discernable detail in the silhouetted rocks. If it was shot
on a bright day, the focus of the picture would be more
on the image in the background. As it is, the strength
of the shot comes from the whole, rather than the
individual parts.
Light 41
 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 reflections on the water on
a sunny day. But on a gloomy day,
it’s those very highlights that
you’re trying to preserve, in order
to add interest.

42 Light
Invest in a neutral density
graduated filter. The reflection will
be darker than the sky – an ND
grad will help you balance the
exposure. Avoid over-filtering
though – start with a 1-stop grad.

Light 43
Be persistent
Don’t 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
don’t be satisfied with the first frame you make.
44 Light
Take away the colour
You’ll begin getting a bigger appreciation of the role
light plays in photography if you start seeing the
world in black and white. Without the distraction of
colour, you’ll begin to gain a deeper understanding
of how light, shadow and composition are the
building blocks of the most successful photographs.
Continue to take images as colour ones in-camera,
but convert them to black and white on your
computer later (then you’ve always got the option
of returning to the colour original). Identify what it
is that you like about the way the light and shadow
work together in your best images, then try using
that knowledge on an entirely different subject.
Light 45
Master of
light
George D. Lepp

O ne of the most prolific 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 – he’s 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.
He’s one of Canon’s ‘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.

46 Light
 Trying to select an image
which typifies George’s
approach to capturing light is
a hard process – a man who’s 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!

See more of George’s

impressive images at
lepphoto.com.

Light 47
48 Light
 Master
Light Top 10 tips...
RISE EARLY, STAY LATE BRING OUT COLOURS

1 The golden hours around dawn

and dusk are when the light tends
to be the most exciting.
6 Shoot saturated colours such as
autumn foliage on an overcast or
cloudy-bright day.

USE REFLECTORS WATCH YOUR METER

2 You’ll get more natural results if

you use a reflector to fill-in detail,
rather than reaching for a flashgun.
7 Your camera can be fooled by
unusual lighting conditions. Spot
meter for total control.

KEEP SILHOUETTES SIMPLE ADD LIGHT IN FOG

3 Make sure you retain the

distinctive shape of a subject –
don’t let it bleed into other silhouettes.
8 When shooting mist or fog,
increase your exposure by 1EV to
bring back the brightness.

ADD FLASH SUBTLY GO SLOW

4 Avoid the ‘overflashed’ look –

reduce your flash output when
shooting in daylight.
9 When shooting in low light,
combine a slow shutter speed with
a burst of flash for interesting results.

AVOID FLARE BE PERSISTENT

5 Shield the front element of your

lens with your hand when
shooting into the sun.
10 Inspiring views deserve
inspiring light – don’t be
satisfied until you get it.

Light 49