{"id":22981,"date":"2019-04-23T15:36:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T00:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danbaileyphoto.com\/blog\/?post_type=tva_lesson&p=22981"},"modified":"2019-04-30T10:49:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T19:49:02","slug":"the-quality-of-light","status":"publish","type":"tva_lesson","link":"https:\/\/danbaileyphoto.com\/blog\/course\/the-quality-of-light\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quality of Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

INTENSITY<\/span><\/strong> – <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/strong> <\/strong>Is the light hard or soft? Direct, full sunlight is hard and intense, while light that is diffused by clouds or that\u2019s partially blocked by some object tends to be softer. Neither is necessarily better or worse, for photography, and as you\u2019ll see in this chapter, which one you use depends largely on what you\u2019re shooting.<\/p>\n

DIRECTION – <\/span> <\/strong>Is the sun directly overhead or is it low on the horizon? Is the light in front of your subject, directly behind it or is hitting it from the side? Directly of the light plays a big part in photography, because it affects the visual \u201cdepth\u201d of your subject matter, and it determines how your shadows look. <\/p>\n

COLOR – <\/span> <\/strong>As it draws its path across the sky each day, the hue of sunlight varies from the coolest blue to the warmest red, and every imaginable color in between. The color quality of your light depends largely on what time of day you\u2019re photographing, or whether you\u2019re shooting in direct sunlight, in shadowed light, or under cloudy skies.<\/p>\n

Now lets explore some of the different kinds of light you\u2019ll encounter when shooting in the outdoors.<\/p>\n

MAGIC HOUR<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you probably already know, the best time to photograph outdoor subjects is usually during the \u2018magic hours\u2019 of sunrise and sunset, when the horizon is clear. Those are the times when the sun\u2019s rays skim the edge of the earth and scatter through more of the atmosphere. The shorter blue and violet wavelengths of the sun\u2019s spectrum get scattered out of the beam, leaving only the longer red and orange rays to pass through and hit the earth.<\/p>\n

During this time, the colors of the scene are enhanced and rendered with a much warmer cast. With the longer angle of illumination, shadows become longer and more pronounced. Whereas shots taken at solar noon tend to render subjects in a rather unappealing and often harsh way, the lighting qualities present during sunrise and sunset usually produce dramatic, striking photographs.<\/p>\n

As photographers, we lust for those times of day. Nothing in life peaks our interest or spikes our energy like the elixir of golden pink light. Everything looks better during magic hour, and if there\u2019s only one piece of advice I could give that would ensure more exciting imagery, it would be to get up earlier and stay up later.<\/p>\n

Providing that the sky is clear near the horizon, magic hour light usually begins to occur anywhere between one and two hours before sunset and after sunrise, with the best light occurring when the sun is closest to the horizon. Varying factors, such as the amount of dust, haze, ash, pollution and moisture in the air will all influence the exact color of the light that gets cast upon the scene. <\/p>\n

Any clouds that are present in the higher areas of the sky will begin to shift colors with the warming light. This can add a very dynamic element to the scene.  Just as the sunset light makes your subjects appear more brilliant, the clouds will continue to become more brilliant the closer the sun is to the horizon.<\/p>\n

SHOOTING DURING OTHER TIMES OF DAY?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Even though I just said that you\u2019ll probably take your best pictures at sunrise and sunset, this doesn’t mean that you should never shoot during other times of the day. Again, if you know how to use the light, you can come away from any situation with a captivating photo. <\/p>\n

MIDDAY LIGHT<\/strong><\/p>\n

The middle of the day can be a tricky time for outdoor photography. When the sun is directly overhead, it casts strong, direct light and shadows that are almost nonexistent. This type of light is the least dramatic type of light in photography, and in fact, it can often be typically quite harsh and very unflattering, especially for portraits and close up subjects.<\/p>\n

However, midday light can work for broad scene that have lots of color, or if you back up a little bit, because it renders your subject with even illumination and minimal shadows. This can be an good time to photograph fields of wildflowers or people out adventuring out in the world. <\/p>\n

Remember, though, that midday light will lack the kind of interesting depth that you\u2019ll get if you shoot when the sun is lower in the sky. With that in mind, midday is a great time to scout for new locations and shoot reference photos for places that you might revisit at Magic Hour.<\/p>\n

OVERCAST & CLOUDY DAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s not always the best light for shooting broad scenes that include large parts of the sky, overcast days are great for shooting close-ups. As it turns out, direct sunlight is not your friend when shooting that close, as it adds too much contrast. Clouds diffuse and soften the light, acting much like the world\u2019s biggest softbox in front of the world\u2019s biggest flash. This produces a much more gentle look without any harsh shadows. <\/p>\n

Overcast conditions are also ideal for shooting in very high contrast locations like inside thick forests, shaded rocks and cliffs and places where the contrast is too great for your camera\u2019s sensor when it\u2019s sunny out.<\/p>\n

Cloudy overcast days often give the perfect light for shooting portraits up close, because you won\u2019t have to deal with shadowed faces, hot spots, blown out backgrounds and people squinting.  <\/p>\n

However, there are always exceptions to the rule, occasionally, heavy overcast can play an important part in the scene as illustrated in the image below. The cloud cover in this shot is certainly a feature element and it adds a dynamic quality to the image that you\u2019d never get on a blue sky day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danbaileyphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tva_lesson\/22981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danbaileyphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tva_lesson"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danbaileyphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tva_lesson"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danbaileyphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}