Photography Mini-Lesson 6 – Light 2

Make the sun work for you

Clearly (and sometimes, not so clearly) the sun is the most important and often the best source of light for your photographs. Apart from the intensity of the sunlight, the colour quality will have a major effect on the picture. At the one extreme you have cold blue tinged light and at the other, warm reddish light. In the main, the position of the sun in the sky will determine the colour quality.

Without getting too technical, as the sun moves closer to the horizon, it passes more obliquely through the atmosphere and the longer wavelengths are absorbed. This gives rise to a golden or warm quality, and on a cloudless day at midday more of the shorter wavelengths are absorbed, resulting in a cold, bluer quality. Mist and cloud can also absorb the shorter wavelengths creating a colder colour.

On an overcast day the sunlight will be diffused and more neutral. In other words, it will have less of an effect on the colour quality of the picture. This can be an advantage if your objective is to capture the “true” colour of the points of interest. Of course, the true colour is quite subjective because we all “see” colour in different ways. If your centre of interest is a colourful flower, diffused neutral sunlight will bring out the subtle colours of the flower more effectively than if the sunlight were intense or at either of the two extremes of quality.

However, if the subject of your photograph is a landscape, the colour quality of the picture will largely depend on the colour quality of the sunlight, rather than that of the centre of interest. A beautiful landscape scene is often made flat, colourless and quite boring if the light is not right. The position of the sun in the sky will also have a major influence on the texture of the picture. A low, raking angle will create contrast and shadow, which combined with the right colour quality will turn a boring scene into an exciting and atmospheric one.

The low angle of the sun in late afternoon made a great landscape into a beautifull scene

Sunset scenes are probably the most photographed of all landscapes and this is not difficult to understand – its all about the beautiful warm colours and the interesting contrasts in the sky. Scenes that would not merit a second look become fascinating at dawn and dusk. The question is: how do we make sure that we capture the play of light using a point and shoot camera? Here are a few tips:

You will need to underexpose rather than overexpose in order to achieve a high degree of colour saturation. If the scene is “big sky”, find the lightest part of the sky in the viewfinder and press the shutter halfway down to lock the exposure. Then re-compose and shoot.

By pointing your camera at a lighter part of the picture you are “fooling” your camera’s exposure meter into “thinking” that there is more light than there actually is and therefore an under-exposure will result. Check your LCD – it should give you a good result. If not, aim your camera at a more neutral part of the sky and repeat.

The dramatic sky is the priority here – the foreground is not important

If the picture is more foreground than sky, decide how much detail you want to see in the foreground and then aim your camera at either a light part of the sky or at a darker part of the foreground, lock the exposure, re-compose and shoot. Check your LCD and play around until you’re happy with the result. Generally, you’re trying to capture the beautiful sky, so a perfect exposure of the sky is the priority, but sometimes you will want more detail in the foreground.

The sky is more dramatic on the right but at the cost of detail in the foreground

One of the keys to great landscape photography is dramatic cloud formations

Clouds add atmosphere (after all they are created by the atmosphere) and they can form at any time of the day – often just before or after a storm. When you see this happening, grab your camera and get out there – you will be amazed at how a mundane scene can be transformed into an exciting photo opportunity. In the picture such as the one below, your camera should be able to work out a balanced exposure but just in case, why not use the bracketing function – most point and shoots do have this option (make sure you really read your manual!).

Bracketing means that the camera will shoot multiple shots, either three or five, depending on the setting, and each shot will be exposed at a higher exposure value or a lower value on either side of the first shot. You will then have three or five different exposures and you can choose the best one.

Without the dramatic cloud formation, this picture would be quite boring

At the opposite extreme to the warm tones of sunset, such as in winter snow, your camera’s exposure meter will be confused by the abundance of white light. All exposure meters base the calculation on a middle gray colour – this is how your camera sees the world. But snow is white, not gray, and if you leave it up to the camera in auto mode your pristine, crisp white snow will become a dull gray in your picture.

To correct this you will need to increase the exposure by at least one stop and in some cases, two stops by using your camera’s exposure compensation function. Exposure compensation works by adding or subtracting exposure values. Your exposure meter will then over expose or under expose depending on which way the compensation has been set. You may also use the bracketing function to make sure that you get it spot on. There might also be some blue light around from the sky, but a blue tinge is OK – in fact it adds to the cold feeling. I repeat again: really read your manual.

Left to the camera this shot would have been a dull gray instead of crisp blue/white

• To summarize

• Outdoor photographers’ time is early morning or late afternoon – in between has to be a special situation
• These special situations are often created before and after rain
• Overcast days are great for even colour tones and bringing out subtle colours
• Use your camera’s exposure lock function to achieve the desired effect
• When in doubt use your camera’s bracketing function
• When the sun is low it will create shadow and contrast, giving your picture interesting texture
  
• Make sure you know your camera’s functions – read the manual – really!

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