PBase

Most of us have taken images outdoors and indoors. We generally use flash indoors when the available light is such that it is a necessity. Unfortunately, in most cases that light source is on the camera or perched in the hot shoe. When you think about it though, the effect of that massive blast of light kills most of the nuances of the available light and the result is often quite flat or just plain uninteresting.

The play of light is often very subtle. We see the dominant but pay less attention to the subtle play of light as it bounces off of reflective objects to finally land on the most absorptive materials. Move one of those reflective sources and the whole landscape changes. We often look for that dominant light source and feature it as the node or focal point of our images.

What I am suggesting here is perhaps looking at the scene from a different perspective. Studying the nuances will open up different way of viewing your composition. When using available light you may start to play with multiple reflectors to change the ambiance of your image. Moving your reflected source just a few inches can change the final outcome significantly. This can even be more apparent when using flash sources and reflectors, mixing those with ambient light and adjusting them to your taste. Even a half of a stop will have an effect that can prove to be dramatic.

What are your feelings about how you approach light and how do you think you can enhance your vocabulary?

Hiya Ben


I'm pretty much of the school that says "be true to the light even when there isn't any". It would be true to say that my understanding and love of available light was born out of the same love of painting as the man that said it, Bresson.

I am reminded of the importance of understanding light whenever i think of the painting Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose by John Singer Sargent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/paintingfl ... gent.shtml

Painted over autumn evenings of 1885 and 1886 and only during twilight when the light was perfect so perfect in fact that he only had ten minutes in which to paint the light. This is a master class in the importance of light and of its understanding.

Today i think that there are few photographers or artists that understand the use of light, particularly available light better then Steve McCurry

http://www.stevemccurry.com/main.php

In the magnums in motion's essay on McCurry "The Aestheic hunter" McCurry speakes of how he finds the right light and how he does that by avoiding the wrong light.

http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essays/mccurry.aspx



Before you can use any tool, be it a lens or a flash gun ect. You do need to know the nature of light and simply sitting in a gallery looking at paintings is one of the greatest lessons in the nature of light you could ever wish for.

Thanks for the debate

Sean