Darren Smith Photography's photographic tutorials are aimed to teach anyone interested in photography the basics in how to operate their camera and what to consider when you move beyond taking "snaps".
This video is all about how light is the key to photography and how it affects your photographs.
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Hello and welcome to the Darren Smith photography tutorials.
This video puts the photo in photography, it's all about lights!
The light level is the most important factor in photography without it simply wouldn't exist. There are of course many different situations where light levels affect your picture such as during a bright sunny day or during the middle of the night your camera must get a sufficient amount of light so that will record your image exposed to it. Adjusting these light levels and the exposure can lead to a vast number of creative possibilities, overcast diffused light is by far the preferred light source with most equipment and media designed to be used in this environment, natural light is perfect for portraiture as well as flower photography as the light is well diffused and as little shadow due to the cloud cover. This can also be created with the use of a diffuser or a semi opaque window.
Also clouds will add a wonderful feature to your landscape photography although if the sky is a dull grey it will appear flat and boring the resource of a lot of media designed for bright days and obviously people like to get the camera out for their summer holidays however, this is not the best light in which to take photographs as the bright Sun creates harsh shadows and affects the colour balance of your image.
If you are able to make adjustments to your camera and work around the light you can balance most of the problems that your composition of your photo. Some of the more common problems you may encounter can be overcome by one or more of the following:
You can move into the shade or make your own shade to remove the direct sunlight.
You can also use a reflector to bounce some of the sunlight onto the shadow side of your subject or a diffusion panel that diffuses the direct sunlight into a similar way in which clouds do it.
You could use fill in flash so that compensates for the harsh shadows.
If you get lens flare from the Sun you can use a lens hood.
You could use a filter such as a polariser to cut down reflections or a neutral density filter to block out some of the light allowing more control over the shutter.
Another thing you can do is you can focus on the mid-tones as your camera's metering can be easily confused in direct sunlight especially with high contrast images and finally, you can change the time of day that you are photographing. A few hours different will obviously mean the Sun has moved and early mornings and the evening time are considered ideal light conditions.
A standard indoor light bulb is considered warmer than natural light enough to require specific settings on your camera filters or extra light sources from a flash gun or speed lights if photographing indoors with no other light source other than a regular light bulb resulting image can be a lot warmer with a yellow hue over the whole picture. To overcome this, you can either be correct it with a filter, either on the lens or whilst editing. Alternatively, specific light bulbs are available hire kelvin ratings known as "balanced day light bulbs" however these two have their own colour balance issues
This example has a slight green tone to it, which needs correcting for.
There are a number of other ways in which you can deal with any problem you might encounter when using electric light bulbs:
You can change the white balance setting on your camera if you can - one that will compensate to this type of light if your camera has this function you will often find there is a variety of settings available to suit most situations. Alternatively you could compensate for this colour shift in your editing software.
A more traditional way is to use an appropriative filter in front of your lens to compensate for the colour shift, and finally, you could use a flash gun or speed light to get the balance of correctly exposed light from the flash on the light source photographers do not always need daylight to produce stunning images photographs can just as easily be taken during the night given a different perspective to the world around us.
There are a number of factors that you should take note of when shooting night time photography, the main thing is to always ensure the camera is stable by using a firm tripod or find a way to secure your camera so it doesn't move such as on a post or a pillar.
Another key factor is to put your camera on self-timer or to use a remote release so you do not have to touch your camera when you press the shutter.
I personally will always put my cameras into manual mode when taking night time photos this means that the camera will not try to compensate for your creativity or tweaking if it doesn't look right and finally, it's really important to be patient and take several shots particularly with photographs such as star trails car light streaks and monuments that always have people around.
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