Seeing the Light

Photography is often called the ability to paint with light. The thought being that everything that we have come to appreciate about photography has to do with the ability of the film or the sensor to capture the light reflected onto them.

Than being said there are a number of other things that go into translating a 3 dimensional object into a two dimensional likeness that we can appreciate as being representative of what we had seen.  let's just stick with one element in this discussion.  That is capturing the light.  The sensitivity or the ability to capture what we see has a number of limitation with the the lens, the dynamic range and the point of our focus. But all this depends on the quality of light that we have in front of us.

Spectral Lights, soft lights, Front lit, Side lit, Temperature of the light. All these things plus more than a few other features  are elements you have to weigh when you want to properly capture the image. One of the most important things you have to learn as a photographer is learning to "see" the light. It is a mantra you ear over and over from instructors and and people trying to help you take your photography from being snapshots to being true photographic captures. However like most beginners they might as well as told me to capture the "essence" of a person. You know its important and your trying to do it but you are not quite sure how it happens by more than just happenstance.

 However as a budding photographer you have  your eye camera you can take anywhere.   Open your eyes, look at a scene and ask yourself. Where is the light coming from? Does it seem harsh? Where are the shadows? are they long  or short? Do the colors seem subdued or really vibrant?  . Ask yourself what would you do to make the scene better?  Don't worry about actually doing it that is another discussion for another day but now you have begun to see the light.