Light
Learning to Read Light
by Tim Webb
One of the first things that I teach about light is that your eyes can balance bright light along with dark light, at the same time. Your camera can not. The camera only has seven stops to work with. As a photographer you have to learn to think and work within those seven stops. If you were in a room with a window, your eyes can see the detail and balance the light in the room, as well as the bright light that’s shining outside the window… all at the same time. Your camera either has to open up and expose for darker light in the room, or close down and expose for the bright light outside. There is very little middle ground with the camera.
A crucial step in moving from a mediocre photographer toward a good photographer, and onto a great photographer, is being able to look at light and know how to read it. A good photographer can look at the light in front of them and know how to expose for it. When it comes to reading light, I’ve always lived by a simple rule, expose for the highlights (the brightest area of light) and let the shadows (the darkest area of light) take care of themselves.
A common mistake that I see is when photographers expose somewhere in the middle, which doesn’t do justice for the highlights or the shadows. There’s nothing striking about a photo that exposes for the middle. Several things happen when you expose for the highlights. First, it brings out really good detail in the highlights and makes them more vivid. It also shores up the color, making the saturation better. And most importantly, it makes the blacks (or the shadows) very rich and dark. It adds contrast and makes the overall photo stronger.
One of the first things that I do when I open my camera bag on a photo shoot is make determination on how good the available light is? If the available light is good then I stick with it. If it’s bad, then I bring out the artificial light. Even if the available light is good, I like to mix it up between available light, artificial light, and a mixture of available and artificial light. I don’t ever want to become pigeon-holed as a photographer who only shoots with available light or only shoots artificial light. I think being proficient at both, and then knowing which one to use for certain situations is the best way to go.
I see a lot of really good photographers who make available light look great, and seem to shoot available light exclusively. Here are my thoughts on shooting only available light. Available light is great as long as it’s good. As a working photographer, you had better be able to create good artificial light when the available light turns bad. If not, you’re screwed. With artificial light, the photographer can use it any time they want and they have full control of it. You don’t have full control with available light because you’re at the mercy of a light source 94 million miles away.
Now that I’ve just bashed available light, let me come back and be a champion of available light. When I use it, I love looking for it. I especially look for shafts of light, such as orange sunlight jutting through a kitchen window at sunset. I also look for directional light, light that is filtering in from really strong from one direction. To me, that’s dramatic light. I love photographing in dramatic light. I love hunting and looking for it, and then capitalizing on it when I find it. And, as I mentioned earlier, once I find great ambient light, it’s not above me to add in artificial light to enhance it with more than one light source.
I used the simple light of a lamp to capture the work of Wooden Cowboy Hat Maker Chris Ramsey. Notice how I exposed for the highlights and let the shadows fall off to black.
When the sky turns black, right after dusk, overexpose it by one to two stops and it will create a beautiful blue sky. And yes, I Photoshopped the moon back in.
I used artificial light in this photo of Louisville Attorney Ann Oldfather, as my primary subject, and used the shaft of available light coming through the window of the Kentucky Supreme Court chambers as a second light source. This is a good example of mixing artificial and ambient light together.
I used the ambience of surgery lights to capture the moment my daughter entered the world.
I used two speed lights and a blue gel to create this image of Martini Recipes for Kentucky Monthly Magazine.
I used the available yellow, tungsten light of an overhead lamp to capture the magic of Bybee Pottery's Walter Cornelison, a man who surrounded by yellow clay.
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