Can you see the light?

Week 13: Seeing the light

Light: the thing that *makes* the photograph

Did you know the word "photography" comes from the 2 Greek words, "photos" and "graphe" - "light" and "drawing"? Photography is, at it's heart, drawing with light.

Without light, a photograph is dead. And for the next 4 weeks I'm going to teach you the only 4 things you need to know about light to create living, breathing photos that leap off the page:

1. Can you see the light, and can you manipulate the direction the light is coming from?

2. Can you control the quality of light?

3. Do you know what colour the light is?

4. Do you know about dynamic range and fill lights?

TELL YOUR FRIENDS: now is the time to join AYWMC if they want to start in January. Send them to AYearWithMyCamera.com to sign up.

Where have we got to so far?

In the first part of this course you learnt how to use your camera simply to control the amount of light hitting the sensor.

In the second part you didn't worry so much about light - we were looking at using composition to control where you placed all the elements in your image.

In this part of the course I'll show you how light is an element of your image all to itself. You first need to be able to see what light you have to play with, then you need to take control.

You can affect the direction of the light to a greater or lesser degree by moving yourself in relation to the subject. You can control the quality of the light, depending on your setting, by moving your subject in relation to the light. Or if you are serious, by putting modifiers between the light and your subject. And you can use a simple setting on your camera to control how the colour of light is rendered on your final image.

Learning to see the light

Look around you right now.

Where is the light coming from?

How bright is the light? Is it brighter in one area than another?

How many sources of light can you see?

Which source is the strongest?

Look carefully. Don't forget that your brain will always try to even everything out. It will make the light closest to you seem stronger than the light coming in through the window. It will make you think the light under a tree is the same as the light out in the open.

Your job this week is to learn to see the light as it really is, not as your brain wants you to see it.

You can use indoor or outdoor light. Don't forget the torch on your phone.

Make sure your flash is turned off, otherwise all your images will be front-lit. If your camera is struggling to take photos on P or Auto modes, go back to the the technical lessons and review the shutter speed lesson. Put your camera on shutter priority, choose a shutter speed of 1/60th or 1/125th, and let the camera pick the aperture. Use a high ISO, as high as you need to go.

Indoors will be easier, because you can move the light around the subject. Once you head outdoors, the sun is fixed in place. You will have to move in relation to the sun, to engineer the direction you want.

Share your images in the Facebook group, in the 7 December homework thread.