Photography is light

Learning goal

You will be able to describe the light in a scene with four qualities: how much of it there is, where it comes from, whether it is hard or soft, and what color it is. You will observe how the same subject turns into a different photo as these four qualities change through the day, begin making it a habit to read the light first whenever you walk into a place, and be ready to explore each quality one by one in the next lessons of this module.

The question

When photographers get together, they speak a strange language. "The light was too hard", "I waited for side light", "when the cloud came over, the light softened", "I love the warmth at that time of day". They talk about light more than about cameras, lenses or even subjects. To someone looking in from outside, this can seem like an obsession: after all, light is always there, isn't it?

Why do photographers talk about light all the time? Because it is the thing that changes most in a photo. A tree, a door, a face stays in place all day. But it has one face in the morning, another at noon and a completely different one in the evening. The subject stays the same, the light changes; and what a photographer really photographs is light. In this lesson we will build a shared language in which we can talk about light.

Context

In Lesson 1.1 you saw that a camera records not objects but the light that comes from them. That lesson set out a fact; this module turns that fact into a skill. Knowing that light matters is one thing; being able to name what light is doing in a scene is another, and to name it you need a vocabulary.

This vocabulary isn't complicated. Four questions are enough to describe light, and they also guide the lessons of this module. We will deal with the direction and hardness of light in separate lessons, the time of day and the weather in separate lessons, and window light and shade at the end of the module. The module project, the light journal, will also be filled with these four questions: you will photograph the same object at different times of day and record how the light changes each time.

Simple explanation

What qualities does light have?

Start describing the light in a scene with quantity: is there plenty of light or little? Plenty of light gives a sharp, clean frame in a short time; little light makes the photographer wait and pushes toward grain or blur. The quantity of light is what decides the camera's settings, and it is a subject you will study in detail in the exposure module.

The direction of light is the side from which light reaches the subject. Light from the front flattens a face, light from the side brings out shapes and texture, light from behind draws a glowing edge around the subject or turns it into a silhouette. The quality of light is whether it is hard or soft: the noon sun leaves sharp-edged, dark shadows; a cloudy sky softens shadows and almost wipes them away. The color of light is whether it is warm or cool: evening sun leans toward orange, a corner left in shade toward blue.

These four qualities always come together and affect one another. But asking about them separately makes reading a scene easier. When you walk into a place, ask yourself: how much light is there, where does it come from, is it hard or soft, what color is it?

How does the same subject change through the day?

The four qualities of light change constantly through the day, and this change turns the same subject into different photos. Before the sun rises, in the twilight of dawn, light is scarce, soft and blue; everything looks calm and cool. When the sun has just risen, light comes from the side and from low down, it is warm and draws long shadows; textures stand out. Toward noon the sun climbs overhead: light is plentiful and hard, shadows shorten and darken, colors fade. In the evening it drops to the side again, warms and softens.

The weather joins this cycle too. On a cloudy day the light is soft and even all day; there is almost no shadow. Before a storm, light can be bright and dramatic under a dark sky. That is why experienced photographers visit a place not once but at different times and in different weather. Changing the light without changing the subject is the cheapest way to get a new photo.

Why does reading the light take habit?

Noticing light feels hard at first, because our brain corrects it all the time. We see a white sheet of paper as white both under an evening lamp and in the noon sun; yet in a photo one leans toward orange and the other toward blue. This correction by the brain helps us in everyday life but misleads the photographer. Reading the light means learning to pause this correction for a moment and look at light as it is.

This reading is especially important when you photograph people. Light tells a different story depending on the skin it falls on. Soft light can show fine tonal transitions on light skin while slightly flattening the shape on dark skin; hard light from the side can draw the lines of a face on dark skin with bright points of reflection. Warm evening light enriches many skin tones, while cool shade can turn some gray. None of these is a rule; but a photographer who reads the light sees what light is doing on the face of the person in front of them and chooses their spot, time or position accordingly.

Visual evidence

Imagine photographing an old blue wooden door with peeling paint on a village street four times. In the frame taken early in the morning, before sunrise, the door is cool and bluish, the texture of the wood is hard to make out, and the whole scene is calm and flat. In the frame taken just after sunrise, light comes from the side and from low down; every crack in the door and every flake of peeling paint has left a small shadow, the door stands out like a relief and is wrapped in a warm orange.

In the noon frame the sun is overhead. The eave above the door has cast a sharp, dark shadow down to the middle of the door; the part under the shadow is almost black, while the part in the sun is faded and glaring. In the last frame, taken on a cloudy afternoon, there is no shadow; the blue of the door is deep and rich, its texture can be made out softly, and the scene is quiet and balanced. The door is the same door in every frame. Light that changes in direction, hardness, color and quantity turns it into four different photos.

Common mistakes

Summary

Photographers talk about light all the time because in a photo the subject stays the same while the light changes; what a photographer really photographs is light. Reading light by its quantity, its direction, its hard or soft quality and its color is the basis for getting different photos from the same subject and for choosing the right spot, time and position.

Mini assignment

This assignment is the start of the module's light journal project.

1. At home or around you, choose a subject that won't move: a plant pot, a door, an object on a windowsill.
2. Today, photograph this subject at two different times, from the same spot and at the same angle.
3. Under each frame, write short answers to the four questions: how much light, where does it come from, is it hard or soft, what color is it?
4. Note in a single sentence which quality changed most between the two frames; you will complete the journal with at least three times of day over this module.

Check yourself

• Were you able to photograph the two frames from the same spot and at the same angle?
• Were you able to write an answer to all four questions for each frame?
• Were you able to explain the difference between the two frames by linking it to the light, not the subject?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What changes most in a photo while the subject stays the same?

• A) The lens
• B) The light
• C) The megapixels
• D) The file format

2. When the sun has just risen, what is the light usually like?

• A) From overhead, hard and cool
• B) From the front, flat and colorless
• C) From the side, from low down, warm and with long shadows
• D) Blue and leaving no shadow at all

3. Why does our brain make it hard to notice the color of light?

• A) Because it corrects colors all the time, so we see white as white in any light
• B) Because our eyes can't tell colors apart at all
• C) Because light has no color in reality
• D) Because the camera can't record colors

4. If the light doesn't suit a subject, what is the first thing to try?

• A) Changing the camera
• B) Giving up the shoot completely
• C) Shooting the photo in black and white
• D) Moving a few steps or coming back at a different time

Answers

1. B — While the subject stays in place, the quantity, direction, quality and color of light change through the day and turn the same subject into different photos.
2. C — When the sun is near the horizon, light comes from the side and from low down, it is warm and draws long shadows that bring out textures; hard light from overhead belongs to noon.
3. A — The brain corrects a white sheet of paper so that it looks white in any light; a photo doesn't make this correction, which is why the color of light has to be read deliberately.
4. D — Changing your spot or the time without changing the subject changes the direction, hardness and color of the light; this is the cheapest and most effective solution.

Summary card

• The subject stays the same, the light changes: a photographer photographs light.
• Four questions: how much, from where, hard or soft, what color?
• Light turns through the day: blue dawn, warm side light, hard noon, soft cloud.
• If the light is bad, change your spot first, then the time.
• The same light speaks differently on different skin; look at the face.

Bridge to the next lesson

You have learned the four questions for talking about light. Now it's time to look closely at one of them, perhaps the most striking one. The same face looks completely different depending on the side from which the light falling on it comes. The next lesson asks about this change: how does the direction of light change a face? There you will see how light from the front flattens a face, how light from the side deepens it, and how light from behind draws a silhouette or a glowing edge.