Introduction to Photography through Light

Welcome to my first post in a series: Introduction to Photography through Light. Together we are going to learn photography through the examination of light. If you are looking for online photography tutorials, there are a lot of them out there all written from slightly different perspectives. And, I encourage you to check out a few. You never know which perspective will “click” for you and its also good for a little reinforcement as you learn key concepts. I will let you in on a little secret … reading blogs and tutorials is how I started! But really, I am excited you chose my tutorials and are here with me today so thank you.

Introduction to Photography through Light

I have written my introduction to photography through the examination of light. That’s my perspective. Read on to learn why. Anyways, enough of the formalities, so you bought a DSLR camera because you wanted to take better pictures of your kids or grandkids? You got the camera home, excitedly took it out of the box, turned it on, and  … now what? The instruction manual to this thing is half an inch thick … Where to start? How are you feeling? Maybe a little overwhelmed? Determined you flip through the manual. It tells you at a very high level what settings do what but doesn’t explain what setting to use when or how or why … ugh. Feeling a little frustrated or lost? What happened next? Maybe you put it back in the box? Maybe you pushed the dial to auto and use it like your previous point and shoot camera? But … you really do want to take better pictures, right? And, you bought a fancy camera because you wanted learn more about photography, right? Well, let me explain in an easy-to-understand way how you can take better pictures…starting from the very beginning. I’ll make it easy. Really. I promise.

 image of little girl being held by father

 

And the Big Secret to Great Photos is …

So for now don’t worry about that big thick manual. Put that thing away. Let’s simplify. The one big secret to taking better pictures is understanding light. Yup, light. That’s it. Crazy, right? Believe it or not, understanding light is the single most impactful difference between an image produced by an amateur photographer versus a pro. So lets review … what do you know about light already? You have lots of light during the day and less at night? Basic, right? Yes. You probably already know that your camera needs a certain amount of light for a picture and when you don’t have enough light, if you are shooting on auto your camera will automatically pop up the little on-board camera flash for supplemental light. Well, pretty much every setting on your camera is about how the camera adjusts for light or lack thereof. Since light is such an important factor in taking beautiful pictures, I am going to center my tutorials around learning light. Each tutorial will be simple and short and contain exercises for practice and reinforcement.

So the big question is, “How do I know how much light I have or how much I need?” Very simply, they call this your exposure. You may have already heard this term before. Basically it means exposing film or in the case of a DSLR, the camera’s sensor, to light. The term exposure will typically refer to how balanced an image looks. Is it too dark, too bright or just right? And although, there is a small exposure range that is stylistically subjective, there are two ways for you to know and even change camera settings prior to even taking the shot to ensure your image will be properly exposed. The two tools inside your camera to help you get proper exposure are your meter and your histogram. We will talk more about each of these in a separate post. So don’t worry about those just yet. Now if you are shooting in auto then your camera will be making adjustments for you to achieve what it thinks is proper exposure. So rather than have you jump right in and start messing with your camera settings, let’s understand what the camera is essentially doing to achieve proper exposure.

Neutral Gray

Your camera does not “see” in color like you and I. Rather your camera identifies everything as black and white and all shades of gray in between. So let’s picture a number line with pure black on one side which represents darkness and pure white on the other end representing light. Now put a notch in the exact center of that number line. In the realm of black and white what color do you think would be represented at your notch? A fairly even-toned gray, right? Yes, exactly. This is called neutral gray. It is a color that is exactly between black and white. By the way, your meter is represented as a number line similarly to what I just described in camera. So for your camera to decide that your image has “proper exposure” it attempts to bring the overall “light” reading as close to this neutral gray setting as possible. Essentially, it is balancing light and dark to get “proper exposure”.

Alright, so that wraps up this post. So far, fairly easy right? On to the next lesson.

Key Learnings:
  • Light is the number one most impactful factor to creating beautiful images
  • Your camera attempts to balance light to create a “properly” exposed image
  • This “balance” between light and dark is called neutral gray
  • Your camera has two tools you can use to measure how your image will be exposed, your meter and histogram

We’ll get into more depth as we go on so keep reading and follow me for additional photo education posts. Please feel free to comment your thoughts and or feedback.

 

 

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