10 Things About Light that will Make Your Photos Pop

In a completely dark room, you can take a 24-hour exposure and get this photo:

Your camera needs light, no matter how little, to make an exposure.

So knowing that light is the most important ingredient for you to cook up your photo, it’s important to know some things about the behavior of light. You can learn to see how light affects your subject, and use that knowledge to make your photos pop. Here are ten things about light that can help you see the light and make your photos pop.

1. Light on a subject can be direct.

Light from a source directly shining on your subject is called direct light. Say you make your subject face the sun. The whole subject will be lit, creating no shadows.

2. Light on a subject can be reflected light.

You can also have reflected light on a subject. This is when the light source hits a surface which does not allow the light to pass through it. That light will bounce off the surface and hit the subject.

Light can be direct or reflected back to the subject.

 3. Light is directional.

Light is like water in that it spreads as far as the space it hits. But if the light source moves, that light will also move. You can choose different light directions for a subject depending on the effect you want to achieve. Sometimes, you might want backlit photos. Other times, you might want side lighting, where the light is coming from one side of the subject.

4. Light produces shadows when it hits a solid object.

If you use a light source that is shining on one side of your subject, that side lighting will create shadows on the opposite side of the subject if your subject is solid.

Light from the sun produces shadows when it hits the surfers.

5. Shadows produced by light define your subject’s shape.

Shadows create the illusion of shape in a two-dimensional photograph because shadows help to define shape. Without a contrast between light and shadow, all you’ve got is something like this:

A flat image, two dimensional to our eyes. No shadows define the shape.

6. Light is softer when it’s from a bigger source.

Light that is from a big source is softer because it loses intensity as it moves through space to hit the subject. (There’s a mathematical way to compute how size affects the intensity of the light, but that’s another tutorial for a whole different blog.)

Light on the model's forehead is directly from the window and is harsher than the softer reflected light on the blue part of the scarf.

7. Light is harsh when small.

When the light is focused around a small space, its intensity increases. So if you could funnel a light toward a subject, the light on the subject will be very bright.

Midday light makes both light and shadow intense.

 8. Soft light produces soft shadows.

Because shadows are direct products of light hitting solid objects, soft light also produces soft shadows. So in the early morning when the light is soft, shadows are soft.

Soft morning light means soft shadows, too.

9. Harsh light produces harsh shadows.

Conversely, as we increase the intensity of the light, the intensity of the shadows will also increase. At noon when the light is directly over us, shadows are normally harsher than they are in the early morning.

10. Reflected light carries the color of the surface on which it bounces.

If you reflect a light on a surface that reflects one color, the light will take on the color of that reflective surface. That means if you stand close to a red car and we take your photo, the parts of you that are lit by the light reflected off the red car will have a red tinge. This is partly the reason why it is so exciting to shoot during the times when light has a lot of yellows, such as early morning. The hues in the sunlight bounce off everything and there is a glow in the things that you photograph.

Reflected light on the sand and water at sunset.

Seeing the light and understand how it affects your image is something that you can learn. Try this last tip—go out without your camera with the goal of finding direct light or reflected light. Without the pressure of having to take a photo, your eyes will learn how light hits different things.

I promise you’re going to want to take your camera with you, next time.

If you want to journey with me as I rekindle my love for all kinds of photography in 2012, and learn lots of things along the way, head on over to our new Facebook page (and like us!), where you can participate in project modules, get some feedback, talk photography, and have your photography featured in a monthly roundup!

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