Do you know how to recognize light and why is it important?
Did you even know that not all light is created equal?
How did you know what is the ideal or best light for the perfect picture?
Not sure why light is important in taking pictures?
Okay, like Baskin & Robbins ice cream, light comes in many different flavors, sunlight; fluorescent light; tungsten light; halogen light; open shade, cloudy light etc.
At this point, you may be checking out the inside of your eyelids now, and only really care about light when you flip a switch and the room you are in is illuminated!!
Honestly you have a very fair point.
Why is it important though when taking pictures?
Lighting is a key factor in creating a successful image. Lighting determines not only brightness and darkness, but also tone, mood, and atmosphere.
I only really care because light is the lifeblood for photography and I am a photographer and taking great pictures, for you, is my overall goal!
It doesn’t matter if you are taking pictures with your 35mm camera, your phone, or if you are Stephen Spielberg making the next blockbuster, you need light to do it. Good lighting is about creating functional lighting with multiple light sources, so as to avoid over-illumination and stress.
In today’s world of digital photography, knowing something about light can go a long way to ensure that the people in your picture aren’t blue or in the shadows.
The first step of knowing light is recognizing the light around you.
Simply: sunlight = white light; the lamps that are in many living rooms are tungsten light; halogen light comes from many of today’s cars; open shade is light from the shade of a building or tree; and cloudy light is just what it sounds like, daylight on a cloudy day.
We have all seen these different types of light before, but it may have not seemed relevant until you picked up a camera and the pictures did not come out as you would have hoped.
To know it, is to own it!
So it breaks down like this; each light source has a different color temperature, and if you don’t use the color temperature to match the light you are in, then you have some “Weird Science” stuff going on.
How do you solve this dilemma, use the White Balance settings on your camera to match the light you are in. Now light becomes another tool in your toolbox, you now control it!
So, grab your phone, your digital camera and start playing with the light!