Project 52 - Week 43: Light

Photography.  pho·tog·ra·phy.  Noun.  Greek origins.  Meaning "drawing with light."

Photography is all about light.  Lack of, too much, just right.  It's like Goldilocks and the three bears.  Sometimes light is too hot, or too cold, but when it's just right...Wow!

I have learned to recognize good light.  Very early morning, and late afternoon can present some of the best natural light for photography work.  But it's my experimentation and work with studio lighting, on and off camera flash, reflectors and diffusers that has given me a deep appreciation of the use of shadow and light.

It is not unheard of to hear a photographer gush over a natural light situation.  These oh-my-gosh-get-the-camera-now moments are ones I watch for in my own shooting. But when they are not plentiful or readily available due to setting, time of year, time of day, we do have tools to help us out.

My photo for this week is of our dog, Danny.  Danny is a study in concentration.  He is always suspicious of every new thing that comes into his life.  It has taken me a great deal of time to get Danny used to my photo equipment and getting him in my studio is still a work in progress.  But he is comfortable on the popular outside glider and if you have a treat in your hand, he will freeze for endless amounts of time staring at it until it is finally in his mouth.  This works to my advantage, and knowing this about him, I knew he would work perfectly for my  "light" blog this week.

Here is the photo.

Taken at 2:15 p.m. on a sunny day this past week, the photo is a study in diffused natural light flowing through a tree.  The problems with diffused light through trees can include:  spotty shadows, too much sun or too little light, and/or dark areas on either side of the face.  I will always use either a reflector or off camera flash depending on the situation.  Sometime even off camera flash can be too illuminating if the feel you are going for is the actual "diffusion" of that light through the trees.  OCF can obliterate the diffusion qualities.  So I typically will pull out a reflector.

With my camera on a tripod, remote trigger, and Danny frozen in time by the very visible treat clamped to a light stand (sometimes you do what you gotta do), below you will find the original image with no reflector, the image using a gold reflector and the image using a silver reflector.  The silver reflected image is the one I settled on above.  But you can see the differences and nuances of each "use of light" situation.

I realize this may be a bit small, but if you look at Danny's right eye (your left) you can see the addition of light reflected in each situation where a reflector was used.  The gold reflector image also has a warm tone to it, while the silver reflector has a cooler tone.  The contours on the right side of Danny's face are brought out more in the images where the reflector was used.  The reflector was placed just below Danny's shoulder on his left (your right) angled upward to reflect the incoming sunlight over his right shoulder.  The rest is all natural light.  (I have spent many hours getting Danny used to my reflectors which he now associates with jackpot treats.)

This movement and use of light is what makes photography so interesting. 

Let me point out, however, that sometimes we do just get lucky--like this past weekend, where I did some candid shots of an event and stumbled upon this light at the end of a long day.  Thank you Mother Nature!

We have a longer blog circle this week, so be sure to check out all of the other photographers, starting with Boston pet photographer, Blue Amrich Studio. Enjoy!