PHOTOGRAPHY CRASH COURSE: PLAYING WITH LIGHT AND SHADOW
You know when the photographer did something right when they can make their subject look good under any difficult lighting. This skill is not something that your born with, it just takes practice. We've had our fair share of experience with these situations since we both have pretty complicated models of the same type of camera. Down below we're going to share some of our most useful tips about light and shadow from behind the camera!
Natural Landscapes and Lighting: Natural photography is a toughy mostly because it's unpredictable. One day you could walk outside, and the lighting could be perfect, and then WHOOSH in the next second the sun could be covered or a cloud could move an inch and ruin your beautifully lit shot. Above are two pictures of The Getty Center in LA. In the top one the sun was at the perfect angle where I could snap the shot of the garden AND the sun rays. In the lower picture, the sun was starting to go down so my gorgeous shot was gone, but I was in luck since the clouds were looking particularly great that day. The trick is you must be prepared for the best and worst lighting possible. Nature is constantly changing, so your camera should be able to shift with it.
Architecture and Shadows: Weird enough, taking pictures of buildings and flowers aren't so different. But, it is a little more challenging to work with shadows from the walls in a stucture. The key is the time and the weather. The top picture is of the Guggenheim Museum in NY. New York being New York was having a cloudy and cold day so the lighting was a little more greyish. Surprisingly this is not as bad as it seems. Cloudy does not = bad photos! Sometimes the shadows from the structure can work in your favor and look better than the actual building (don't get me wrong this museum is amazingly designed). Unlike the photo of the Guggenheim , the picture of the Bradbury Building in Downtown LA has some natural sunlight in it. This sunlight caused some issues though in the lower part of the photo. If you look at it closely, the stairs are essentially the "hightlighted" part of the photo because the sun only hit that part. That leaves the lower floors a little darker, which in this case makes a really cool effect. this may seem confusing to you now, but trust us both, once you start snapping shots with your camera you'll know exactly what we mean.
Black and White Lighting and Shadows 101: Black and white photos are the basis of photography. By basis we definitely don't mean simple. Black and white photography is actually one of the most difficult effects to work with. You have to consider every detail of a colored object and invert it so you can still sense that it is colorful in real life. The three photos above are perfect examples of this. The first photo of the flower shadow and flower show that the flower has a darker tone. You can see this because of the shadows inside of the petal area. The second photo shows a great use of darkness in my hair. I have super dark brown hair and in the photo you can tell since the tones are dark as well. The best part about it is the blending in the photo, my hair almost morphs into the shadows. The last picture is really quite remarkable since the brightness of it evokes day light without actually showing the sun. When using any black and white effect you must be wary of your light source, the subject's coloration, and the details of the surroundings.
Wow, that was a super helpful explanation of using lighting and shadows in your photography right? It's ok if your still confused, we completely understand. Lighting and shadows are hard to work with so don't be worried if you don't get it right away. As we said earlier, it takes practice. In the mean time you should get out there and snap a few shots and if you don't like your results then try again. Perfection doesn't always come so quickly so get going and start snapping!
xoxo,
Emma :)