http://www.clarkvision.com/articles/lighting.composition.subject
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Introduction
I am often asked by new photographers what it take to learn photography. Here is what I think is most important.
I'm going to advise a non-traditional approach to learning photography. The traditional view to learning is to start out manual and learn all the settings. But the problem with this approach is it is highly technical and difficult for many to grasp. People new to photography can become so frustrated at the technical details that they never get to real photography. Or they become adept at making the perfect exposure, but do not understand light and fail to make photographs with impact or emotion.
The core of photography is lighting, composition and subject.
Now, I do not mean one should not learn the technical stuff, like exposure, ISO and depth of field, but modern cameras, even in program or other automated modes do a very good job of making good settings in many, but not all situations. For the beginning photographer, let the modern camera do that job while you learn the more important details of lighting, composition, and subject. Once you learn some about lighting, composition, and subject, you can start to including learning about exposure meters and when they might estimate poorly so you can correct it and make a better image. You can learn when to boost ISO and about depth-of-field.
It matters not what the f/stop ISO and exposure time is if you don't have great lighting, good composition, and an interesting subject. When the three of these come together, the photo has impact (assuming exposure is good, but most modern cameras automatically make good exposures).
So my advice is to read books and online tutorials on lighting, composition, and subject. Set your camera to program or auto everything to start out. Don't get bogged down in the technical details of f/stops, exposure, depth of field, ISO. Most modern cameras have sports, portrait, landscape and other modes. Use them first and learn lighting, composition, and subject.
After you are getting pretty good with lighting, composition, and subject, then you can start to learn what those different modes mean. After learning f/stops, ISO, exposure time, depth of field and other technical details, you can push to new heights in your photography, and perhaps making those "WOW!" photographs.
Once you learn the technical details, there are pretty much only two modes to use: aperture priority and manual. I was on a shoot when I wrote the first draft of this article. I did probably 90% of my images in manual, 10% in aperture priority. I do not use shutter priority because it can underexpose, and I can control shutter speed by ISO and f/stop. (If this is over your head, it's OK; do not worry about it now; just concentrate on lighting, composition and subject.)
Some say shoot, shoot, shoot. I disagree. Others give some good advice: take notes and slow down. While getting out and making photographs is very important, there is a major difference between getting out and "shooting" versus getting out and making every image count.
After reading about lighting, composition, and subject, go out at different times of day. Start with one subject and try different things to make a great image. Different angles to the sun. If you read the right books and follow and understand lighting, composition, and subject, you will have a big head start. Now, the key in this study is to NOT take a lot of pictures. Learn to see: if it is not a great image in the viewfinder, don't take the picture. Make every image you take a winner (generally even the top pros with years of experience can't make every image a keeper). But the more experience and the more you understand lighting, composition, and subject, the more keepers you will have.
If you go out and the lighting, composition, or subject is not great, don't take a picture. Learning when not to take the picture is just as important as learning when to take the picture. Have you gone out with your camera gear and not taken a picture? This is the hardest thing for the novice to learn.
I have surveyed dozens of books in bookstores in addition to the few dozen photo books I have in my house. It is a rare book that really treats lighting well. There are books that discuss studio lighting, but natural light is rarely discussed for more than a few pages, and often with significant errors.
E.g., here is one: Bill Fortney's Great Photography
Workshop, 2003 where he states "there are two basic kinds of light:
specular and diffuse." There is also absorbed, transmitted,
emission line, and continuous spectral emission, to name a few.
Lighting
Lighting has many factors. It can be directional or diffuse, with multiple or single sources, have different colors and direction to the camera.
Types of Lighting
Understanding the direction and color of light sources is key to learning how, when, and where to photograph a subject. Figure 1A illustrates two basic types of lighting: the directional reflection from a mirror, and 2 diffuse reflection of light from white paper. It was difficult to make this photograph because the light from the sun reflected in the mirror was so bright. Which reflects more light: the mirror or the paper?
The light from the mirror and the paper reflect nearly the same total light (the paper about 2% more light), but the mirror appears brighter because it reflected most of the light towards the camera, whereas the paper reflected the light in all directions. There is a continuous range from collimated direct reflection to completely diffuse reflection. It is the directionality of direct versus diffuse light, whether the light is reflected or transmitted that contributes to the huge dynamic range we see in the natural world.
Figure 1b shows several kinds of light: direct light (the lights from the city; stars are natural direct lights as is the sun in sunrise/sunset photos), reflected sunlight off of the moon, and transmitted light through the thin clouds. There are also different types of color: continuous spectrum and emission line sources. The moon is a continuous spectrum light source as it is reflected sunlight. The lights from the city are incandescent, and emission line sources like neon signs, and low pressure sodium lights.)
The Moonrise image, Figure 1b, illustrates another property of light: directionality. The clouds in front of the moon scatter light mostly in the same direction as the moonlight. This is called forward scattering. Compare that to the pad of paper in Figure 1A. The the pad of paper were thick enough, no light would be transmitted and the light would be scattered only in the hemisphere above the paper. That is called backscatter. Thin clouds forward scatter light, and that forward scattering can be as much as a million times (20 photographic stops) or more in the forward direction as it is in the side or backward directions. This makes it difficult to photograph toward the sun on some days as clouds in the sky can be so bright they saturate the film or electronic sensor.
Types of Lighting Important in photography (light can be any/all combinations of these in various proportions)
Light from a clear blue sky is polarized where the maximum polarization if 90 degrees from the sun. Light from the clear blue sky is also a diffuse light source. Light directionally reflected off of non-metallic surfaces can be strongly polarized, depending on angle, including glass, water, and leaves on trees. (Metallic surfaces are also weakly polarized, but the effect is usually small in photography.) rainbows are polarized.
The sun is both a continuous spectrum light source, an emission line light source, an absorption line light source, and is slightly diffuse. For example, a telephoto image of a sunset, the sun appears large, but in a wide angle image of the sun, the sun appears small and can be considered a point source. This is also true of shadows: they can appear sharp if the shadow is cast only a short distance, for example the shadows cast by facial features on a person's face. But shadows from the sun can have a soft edge, e.g. cast by a distant mountain. Light from the sun reaches the Earth transmitted and diffusely scattered through our atmosphere and clouds, and some of that light gets polarized. Absorption of the light as it passes though the atmosphere changes its color.
Direction of Light
The direction of the light on the subject is important, for example straight overhead sunlight generally produces harsh light with deep shadows in people's eyes, and flat appearance to topography (an exception is some Canyons have the best light when the sun is high)..
The angle from the light (e.g. the sun) to the subject and then to the camera is called the phase angle (Figure 2a, b). The angle of incidence of the light source (e.g. the sun) on a subject along with the phase angle and sets the shading we view on the subject.
Watch the phases of the moon (Figure 2b). When the moon is full, the angle between the sun and camera from the subject (the moon) is very low. You see no shadows, thus no landforms. At first and last quarter (the moon's disk is half lit) shows nice shadows near the sunrise/sunset line and craters show nicely. This is 90 degrees phase angle and at the sunrise/sunset line the sun's angle of incidence is low. It is the same with other subjects: faces show deep shadows (whether human or animal) at 90 degrees phase angle which may not be desirable. Deep shadows may be what you desire for a landscape scene where you want to show the topography of a rugged mountain. Front lighting is often desired for wildlife photography as it often shows the colors and fine structure in fur/feathers. But there are always exceptions.
Phase Angle The angle from the light source to the camera as viewed by the subject (see Figure 2).
There is a difference in symmetry regarding phase angles (Figure 3). In one direction, shadows increase, but in the other direction shadows decrease. See the examples below for how this symmetry affects photographs.
Back lighting can cause dramatic effects and enhanced colors. Leaves transmit light and fall colors generally look better with transmitted light. This is a phase angle near 180 degrees.
Some subjects may appear better with diffuse lighting. For example, flowers. Flower photography can be great on a cloudy day (see Figures 5 and 6, below).
Direct sunlight can cause harsh shadows, but broken clouds can diffusely reflect sunlight from multiple sources onto the subject, creating pleasant effects. Sunlight can also be transmitted through clouds, filling in dark shadows.
The color of the light is important. For example, shadows outdoors are diffusely lit from the sky. A blue sky fills shadows with blue light. An overcast sky produces a blue cast (cooler). A low sun passes through a thick atmosphere causing a redder (warmer) color. Add clouds to the low sun and multiple light sources illuminate the subject, and this can produce dramatic and spectacular effects. Some of these effects are seen in Figures 4, 5, and 6.
While a low sun casting shadows can give depth and texture to grand landscape images. not all subjects look good with strong shadows. Flowers are one example. Figure 5 shows two extremes in lighting on flowers. Clearly the shadows and direct sun with specular reflections dominate the beautiful colors of the flowers.
Table 1. Lighting for flower images. All images at 100 mm, f/11, ISO 200, June 5 and 6, 2009. Sunrise was 5:33 AM, sunset 8:25 PM. All images are from in-camera jpegs with the same color balance and stretch except image S, which is raw converted to give a warmer color balance. All images were evaluative metering at -2/3 stop.
The image sequence in Figure 6 shows that images of flowers in direct sun have strong shadows that dominate the image. Specular reflections in direct sun also hides colors and masks subtle shading seen under diffuse lighting. Diffuse lighting displays a wide color balance range, but that can usually be corrected by recording raw data and selecting the color balance during raw conversion (e.g. compare 5R and 5S). Note how the color of the light changes the perception of color in the flowers. For example, blue sky de-emphasizes reds. Images 5N through 5R have increasing contribution from a deepening blue sky as sunset fades. The images become more blue, and emphasize the blue and purple flowers. Compare image 5S with 5A and 5B. Image 5S was converted to a color balance close to that in 5B, but the bluer sky in 5S emphasizes the blues and de-emphasizes the reds.
The metering for the images in Figure 6 was compensated to -2/3 stop. The reason for this is that strong colors, especially reds, yellows, and blues tend to saturate. The light meter in most cameras is less sensitive to these colors. In the case of the flower images, the red flowers saturated the red channel with standard metering. I monitor the histogram for all colors on the back of the camera to be sure no channel saturates.
As in landscape photography, having the light source overhead results in generally undesirable photography, especially in clear blue sky. Such light is generally very harsh, meaning very directional and for animals and people casts sharp shadows. For example, people's eyes appear in deeply shadowed eye sockets. Figure 7 illustrates this effect with a teddy bear.
Even with the sun low, the angle of the incident sunlight and the camera (the phase angle) are important. As with the flower example in Figure 6, the phase angle greatly influences the lighting effect on people and animals. Figure 8 illustrates phase angle effects on a teddy bear. At high phase angles, the shadows are strong, but can be dramatic (see example photos at the end of this article).
There are multiple factors that influence the quality of light, not simply the phase angle, diffuse/directional, and incidence. Some of these quality issues are illustrated in Figure 9.
Examine the different views in Figure 9.
Polarized Light. Some light is polarized. Light from the blue sky is polarized when viewed 90 degrees from the sun. So when photographing a landscape at a phase angle of 90 degrees, a polarizing filter can darken the blue sky and reduce the effects of light scattered from haze between you and the subject, making the subject appear more clear. Light that is specularly reflected can be polarized, such as light from the surface of water or a window. On those situations, a polarizer can reduce the reflected component allowing you to see and photograph deeper into the subject (e.g. fish in the water). Rainbows are polarized (Figure 9F).
Foreground and Background Light
Coming soon.
Composition
(This section to be expanded.)
The arrangement of the visual elements in the scene and how it draws in the viewer make the composition. There are many forms of composition, including lines or curves that lead the viewer to a subject. The placement of the main subject has an impact on the viewer. For example, the "rule of thirds" says it is more pleasing to place the subject about 1/3 of the way from an edge rather than dead center. Horizons should be parallel to the edge of the frame.
Avoid distracting elements, such as branches sticking into the frame, and bright areas that draw the eye away from the subject.
Perspective: the position of the camera relative to the subject. Choose a perspective that helps the viewer connect with the subject. For example, a picture looking down on a dog looking up at the camera is usually less effective than working at eye level.
Include patterns, lines, and texture as part of the composition and use them to enhance the subject.
Subject
The subject is the dominant element or elements in the scene. For example, it could be a canyon in a landscape image, an animal, two animals, or a group of animals. Generally the subject should be very sharp unless you want to illustrate blur due to motion. If you are trying for motion blur effects, the blur should be large rather than a small blur. Small blur appears to most viewers as a poor photo and sometimes hurts the eyes. If an image is to illustrate the view like you were standing at the scene, the image must be very sharp. The sharpness should match or exceed what you can see with your eyes.
The main subject should hold the viewer's attention and be something that attracts the viewer (it may be pleasing or repulsive, but should attract the viewer to the subject).
If the subject is an animal, it should be doing something that attracts the viewer. For example, if looking at the camera, the animal's eyes should engage the viewer. If two animals are in the image, they should be looking at the viewer or each other. Or the animals should be looking at something that also attracts the viewer.
There should be no distracting elements around the subject, such as a stick that appears to be coming out of the head of an animal. Bright elements detract from the subject. For example, a bright background shining through leaves in a tree next to an animal's head can ruin an otherwise good image. The subject should usually be the brightest thing in the scene, not a distracting element. Exceptions include silhouettes.
It is usually better to have space in front of an animal rather than behind the animal. For example, if the animal in facing the camera, it is usually better to include space in front at the bottom of the frame rather than above the animal at the top of the frame. (Examples below.)
A sparkle in the eye of an animal is called catchlight. Always try and get an angle with the sun or bright sky that shows some catchlight in the eyes. (Examples below.)
Head Angle. The angle of an animal's head is important. An animal's image generally has low impact if the animal's head is facing away from the camera. A tilt of the head toward the camera usually has greater impact. (Examples below.)
The eyes of animals should be very sharp. Showing clear definition of the pupil has greater impact.
Examples (Click on each image to see a larger version).
| Example of diffuse light from clouds before sunrise. The horizon is at the rule of thirds as is the location where the sun is about to rise. |
| Example 90 degree phase angle. The trees are near the rule of thirds line, as is Chimney Rock. The high phase angle allows us to see some transmitted light from the yellow leaves, enhancing their color. |
| Example of flowers lit by light diffusely transmitted through a passing cloud. This is a good example of when you can image with the sun nearly overhead and not near sunrise or sunset like many advocate. |
| An approaching storm at 1 pm illustrates that photos with dramatic lighting can be obtained at any time of the day in the right conditions. |
| A lion imaged at about -90 degrees phase angle shows dramatic shadows. Notice the catchlight in the eye, and the eyes are about the rule of thirds line. Focus is on the eyes (that is very important). The negative phase angle (see Figure 3 above) emphasizes the shadows. |
| A leopard imaged at about 30 degrees phase angle. Note the reduction in shadows compared to the lion image above. The positive phase angle de-emphasizes the shadows. This would have been a great image except for two things: 1) It would have been better if the leopard was looking more at the camera. 2) The thorned acacia branch coming out of the ear is a distraction. A better position for the camera would have been about 50 feet to the right. The light is wonderful afternoon warm light with broken clouds adding diffuse light to the shadows. |
| This bird was imaged at low phase angle so the color and texture of the feathers show nicely. Note the head angle towards the camera, and the catchlight in the eye. The focus is on the eye and the pupil is clearly visible. The phase angle is low, about 20 degrees. |
| This image has great impact because the leopard is looking directly at the camera. The pupils are clearly seen and sharp as the focus is on the eyes. There is space in front of the animal inviting it to come closer. The phase angle is low, about +45 degrees, de-emphasizing shadows. |
| An image of a lion cub and its mother taken in diffuse early morning light. The soft light de-emphasizes shadows so the color and texture show nicely without high contrast. |
Go to the photo galleries and see if you recognize some of the positive and negative aspects of lighting composition and the subject in these images. Note which has impact for you, the viewer.
Recommended Books and Web Sites
(There are a number of good books on studio lighting, but the subject of this article is natural light so references to studio lighting is not covered.)
All books by John Shaw http://www.johnshawphoto.com/books.html
Ansel Adams, 1952, Natural Light Photography Morgan and Morgan, New York, 118 pages.
As usual, Adams, a master of capturing light, does a very good presentation. The book covers light and exposure along with the zone system, and while dated for the digital era, it covers the basics like few books in the 50+ years since it's publication.
For photography, a modern book that is probably the most in depth I've seen is:
Michael Freeman, 2007, The complete guide to light and lighting in digital photography, The Hex Press, 224 pages
Now, first I would say that any book with a title that says "complete guide" is a lie, and the above book is no exception. But it does have 58 pages of natural lighting discussion, and you can dig more out of the indoor and studio sections which are the bulk of the book. This is the book I would recommend for people trying to understand photography.
There are a number of things wrong in the beginning, like ISO changes sensitivity on a digital camera, or you can only get 8 or so f/stops with 8-bit encoding.
Freeman also does not discuss lighting for wildlife photography.
Another interesting read is: Transient Light by Ian Cameron, 2008.
It is not as complete as the Freeman book but has some interesting points. It makes similar errors as the Freeman book but also has some bizarre statements like film and digital have only 5 stops of dynamic range (wrong). It also says scenes lit by moonlight are somewhat monochromatic, which is also not correct.
While most lighting discussions pretty much say shoot in the golden hours, Cameron cites some exceptions, like deep canyons. But his treatment is focused on landscape photography and not wildlife, people of other subjects.
So despite these books being incomplete and having a few errors, I would still recommend them as they have more info than other photo books I've seen.
Links to photography composition articles: http://photoinf.com
If you want to get into the gory scientific details of light
interaction with surfaces, see:
Hapke, B., 1993, Introduction to the Theory of reflectance and
Emittance Spectroscopy, Cambridge University Press, New York.
and
Clark, R. N., Chapter 1: Spectroscopy of Rocks and Minerals, and
Principles of Spectroscopy, in Manual of Remote Sensing Volume 3,
Remote Sensing for the Earth Sciences, (A.N. Rencz, ed.) John Wiley
and Sons, New York, p 3- 58, 1999.
Home Page: ClarkVision.com
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First Published May 5, 2009
Last updated March 22, 2010.