Compose Yourself

By Danielle Gagnier

“Light turns the ordinary into the magical.” -Trent Parke

Light is everything in photography. From shadows to highlights and everything in between, it is the one thing that affects everything in a photo. Controlling your light source may seem difficult to do, but it could be as simple as taking the picture from a different angle.

The first step is figuring out whether you have soft light or hard light. Hard lighting creates distinct shadows and lines. Soft lighting would be a more diffused, broad source. It still creates shadows on your subject, but they are less defined. The closer your light source is to your subject, the softer the light will be.

Whether you use soft or hard lighting, the shadows on your subject will create depth and volume and improve your overall quality.

Front lighting makes your subject flat and inanimate. Changing where your light source comes from brings your subject to life. Using side lighting casts shadows on your subject and makes them more realistic, giving them depth and more pronounced feature. The same goes for top lighting. Backlighting will create a silhouette around your subject and give a completely different view of the scene. Using lighting close to your subject can eliminate any objects in the background and create a clean slate for your subject, making them the only focus in the photo.

The most important thing when it comes to controlling light in photography is remembering all light sources, although they seem white, have colour to them. Some are warmer than others and will make your photo more red, while some are cooler and give your photo a blueish tint.

“Light makes photography. Embrace it. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth and you will know the key to photography.” -George Eastman.