Daylight and Available Light

While out walking around Manhattan today, I looked up at the sky to "look" at the light quality. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue and the shadows on the buildings were faint. It got me to think about daylight and available light. I'm going to talk about these things n two blogs.

Learn to see light. Most people take photos outdoors with out giving thought about the quality of light. The most oridinary thing can be brillant in the right light. To master both daylight and available light, start looking at light and thinking about it.

Daylight is not the same at different times, different seasons, different weather or different places. Even you can not travel, if you choose to shoot at a variety of times throughout the year, you will have a variety of light quality. It's up to you as a photographer to use this free resource to your best advantage or know how to make it work for you if you can't choose the time of day to shoot.

One of the most important things I can suggest is choose the time of day to photograph. It can make all the difference between an average shot and a fabulous one. Many professionals such architectural photographers or travel photographers, spend a lot of time waiting for the light to be just right. Landscapes can be best photographed early morning or early evening in some locations. While on location in the Bahamas and the Florida Keys, I had to get up before dawn to capture landscape and lifestyle images before the strong summer sun came out to over exposure the entire area.

Weather is important too. On soft lit cloudy days, the light is often flattering to people. Outdoor portraits shot in this light do not have hard shadows on the face that you might get in bright sunlight. You can shoot in the rain, fog or snow (be sure to protect your camera) and produce stunning images with the weather acting as a softing light modifier. Blue dusk is a great time to shoot mountains. Dusk views in big cities with millions of lights on is wonderful light to shoot buildings. and living in a big metropolitan area, shooting at dusk with a tripod is very easy to do.

The quality and direction of daylight is very important. Once you learn to recognize and use it, you'll have better photographs. that is where I am going to leave off. Take a look at the sky, the sides of buildings and a different times of the day.