Its not a very flattering description, but it works. In my opinion, photographers should be “light snobs”…what do I mean by that. Well, being a light snob is like being a food snob. You seek out the best light (like seeking out the best food), you only shoot in the best light (think…best restaurant) and you are very careful about the light that you use to shoot. If the light starts getting bad, you stop shooting. In other words, you become hyper sensitive to the light in your scene. This, I believe, is one of the things that separates a good photograph from a SPECTACULAR one. We have all seen them, those photos that literally jump off the page or screen at you. Sometimes I have even photographed the same scene, but in very different light and the result was…meh! Average to poor. If the light was right, then the image would have been amazing. Here are some ideas around light…
1. How do I know when the light is good?
Good question, and its a simple or simplistic answer… you will KNOW. I have been fortunate to shoot in THAT kind of light a few times and it is amazing. Your image on the LCD screen of your camera looks fantastic, the light around looks incredible and the scene is impossible to forget, you will know it when it happens, also, it doesn’t happen every sunset. Sometimes a sunset or sunrise can be a spiritual experience, other times, it goes from yellow to dark in 5 minutes…but when it is good, you will know and then you need to perform your magic.
2. Ok, but that kind of light doesn’t happen all the time.
True, that doesn’t mean I don’t photograph in normal light, I do, sometimes I can’t avoid it. When I have been travelling and I arrive at a place at midday and it is bright and contrasty, I still take some photos. Why? Well, I may not be coming back that way and it is good to capture something for my memory (which will fail me one day) and to test my skills. I like to try and get some useable images in bad conditions. If I am staying a while, I will get some images, but spend the time scouting out places for when light will be better, like at sunrise or sunset. I will then go back to those places and shoot then. If I am lucky the light will be good at the time of day I chose, if the stars align…the light will be magnificent and I will get a few incredible images. Either way, you need to plan to shoot when the light is at its best and sometimes, just sometimes, you have awesome light that makes all your patience and planning worth it. The best times to shoot? Sunrise and sunset of course and the hours around that, the Golden hours!
3. I can shoot in bad light and fix it in Photoshop afterwards
Well, yes and no. Photoshop is not “fixitup” shop. Photoshop can do amazing things to images, but it can’t make a bad image, good. It is really good at making good images spectacular and thats what it is designed to do. Yes, you can fix errors and problems, yes you can even add a sky into your image that wasn’t there, but then thats not really photography is it. You want to photograph the scene to the best of your technical ability and try and shoot in the best light possible. That way, you won’t be spending 2 hours in Photoshop afterwards trying to make the image look worthwhile. I love Photoshop, it is a key tool in my photographic toolkit, but it is not my ONLY tool. My main tool is Light, then my ability and skill to use my camera and of course my camera itself. Once the image has been captured, then I take the image into Photoshop for the final touches.
4. So, what does this all mean…
Yes, I am a light snob, but not in a bad way. It means that I seek out the best possible light, I plan to shoot in the best possible light and when that happens my best images are made. Its that simple. Its not that easy though. My advice would be to start looking at the light in your part of the world. Start looking at the colour of the light at different times of the day, watch where the sun sets and see how that would look on the subject you want to shoot.
Become a student of light, without it, we cannot make a photograph.