Light: the be-all and end-all of photography!
Light is to photography, what metal is to welding.
Light is the basis of how an image is made, and it’s a mercurial energy to work with. Light holds intensity and colour and can be physically manipulated in many ways. Then there is the way light behaves within the photographic process, which adds another level of complexity to how photographs can look.
I find it curious that there isn’t greater reverence amongst a lot of photographers towards light, given its overarching influence on every aspect of the medium. I am over 30 years into dabbling in light experiments, and I’m still finding new ways to use and modify light through the tools of photography.
A major drawcard for me as an artist is to find aberrations in the way my subjects (often plants and natural materials) refract and bend light, and then the ways my lens and camera contend with these oddities. The breaking up of light into various spectral displays is among the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The purity of colours and the variations caused by the way different subject matter interacts with white light are amazing. For example, light broken up into the spectrum through melting ice creates a palette of colour all of its own.
Photographically, light has various qualities, probably simplistically described on a scale from harsh to soft, big to small. This isn’t a scale of good to bad light, it’s a scale of variation of effects available to create mood, drama and intensity. It’s the primary palette available to you as a photographer, and it should be deeply explored. Various qualities of light can be used in a single photograph, so it’s important to have a good handle on how light affects detail and mood. Light is the glue that solidifies your subject and composition into concise storytelling.
The “hardest” light is directly from a powerful light source. It is pure and maximum energy. The best example of this type of light can be found as sunlight in the middle of a summer's day. It creates sharp shadows and strong contrast with a colour temperature that appears as “neutral” white light. That means the light isn’t carrying a warm colour cast like a sunset or a cool cast like moonlight. This colour temperature can be replicated in artificially produced light. Studio flash equipment is rated at this same colour temperature as sunlight, so it can be used during the day without adding a different coloured light to the image.
The fact that this light is harsh doesn’t make it bad; it means that it will be useful in specific ways. Harsher light can emphasise fine detail where the light hits and create maximum contrast, so strong-edged deep shadows. This can be immensely dramatic and can be used as a device to hide detail in the darkest parts of the shadows created. Think of a spotlight straight over the head of a professional fighter. The harshness of the light would emphasise every pore and drop of sweat on their brow, but their eyes would be hidden in shadow.
Softer light can be found on a mildly overcast day. The sunlight is diffused through the clouds, so it lacks the directional quality of direct sunlight and wraps around objects with less definition of the edge of shadows. There is a lot more detail across a subject with the flattening out of contrast. The light source is spread out to the size of the clouds, so it’s a bigger light source compared to the single point source of the sun.
Direct light can be bounced off different materials and will carry the attributes of that material. Light bounced off a mirror will be more or less identical to the light source, but light bounced off a sheet of white card will be softer, with some of the light being absorbed by the card. Light bounced off a green sheet of card will be green, a gold card will be gold, etc, etc.
Diffusing light is a great way to vary the quality of light in a controlled manner. When shooting highly reflective objects like glass, I’ll do all I can to soften the light, I’ll use a thin opaque white material in front of a softbox to pass light through. The harsher the light is, the less detail anywhere that the light reflects off the glass. The greater the diffusion of light, the more detail in the highlights.
Indirect light on a bright day can be another really interesting type of light. I often photograph people just inside doorways on bright days, the light that lands on them is soft and leaves a strong highlight in their eyes. It’s another form of bounced light.
How the size of a light source affects the quality of light is a very important concept to understand. As a rule of thumb, the light from a small, on-camera flash will look uninspiring, but if that same light can be bounced into a ceiling, the quality of the light becomes larger, softer and more integrated with the subject. The light source starts small and expands to the area that the flashlight can cover on the ceiling.
When shooting highly reflective subjects in the studio, the light source needs to extend past the top and bottom of the subject to get a light slick that runs a full edge; the light needs to dwarf the subject.
This is evident in natural light car photography. The car is photographed after the sun has set, so the whole sky becomes a glowing light source that wraps around the entire car.
So this is a very brief overview of some ways to perceive types of light and how they might affect your choices when making photographs. There are no right and wrong choices; it’s about finding a look that exemplifies the intent of the story you are trying to create through your image making. Good lighting choices sit comfortably with all of the elements of the image and tie everything together into a cohesive package. Lighting is the literal foundation of all photographs, and I can’t overemphasise how important the choices of how you use light in your photography will be. Never settle with light, keep experimenting and seeing how far you can stray from your comfort zone.