The importance of understanding light

Light, as you may have understood from previous classes during this course, is one in every one of the six essentials for photography, and understanding light and listening thereto is one in all the quickest ways to enhance your photography.

“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But particularly, know light. realize it for all you’re worth, and you’ll know the key to photography.” George Eastman, founding father of Kodak

One of the foremost important element of creativity in photography, light is what allows us to convey information and, more importantly, emotion in a picture. Once you understand light, you’ll have the knowledge to make a large sort of creative imagination. Many photographers will tell you that the simplest light for photography is ‘the magic hour’. this is often the hour just before and just after sunset or sunrise. this is often because there’s a mix of both hard and soft light, which might produce much nicer results than simply hard or simply soft light.

Natural light portrait photography
However, the magic hour isn’t the sole time to photograph. As you’ll have seen within the video, once you understand the various varieties of light, you’ll have a more robust understanding of the way to control light and the way you’ll be able to get the simplest results shooting at any time of day — even at midday.

Ways to use light in photography
When it involves using light, there is a variety of various ways it is often utilized in photography. The direction, hardness, softness, and temperature of sunshine can all have an effect on the mood and feeling of a picture. Sidelight, as an example, evokes feelings of romance and nostalgia, whereas light from below creates a way of terror. Hard shadows create more of a way of drama than soft shadows, and funky color tones convey more negative emotions than warm light.

How to control natural light
As photographers, there are a variety of various ways we are able to control light to assist us to get the result we wish. One in every one of these ways is planning. By planning ahead, you’ll be able to get the most effective sort of light for your shot. for instance, if you would like warm, golden light with long shadows, then sunrise or sunset is once you should be shooting. If you’re wanting a more subtle light with softer shadows, attempt to await a cloudy day. otherwise to manage natural light is thru the utilization of reflectors. These simple accessories will be great for adding more light to your subject (or, if you utilize a dark reflector, darkening your scene). There’s also the choice to use flash. By using simple lighting like speedlites, you’ll get quite creative results. Diffusion material is another useful gizmo for controlling light. This spreads your light and softens the shadow, very almost like clouds on an overcast day.

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