Light 6: Electronic Flash

Now, lets talk about the killer of photography.

In the good old days, even amateur photographers used to take their subjects near the window or a source of light, or else put their cameras on tripod. Simply to get a shot with a reasonably good light. But now? what do we do? Switch the flash on, and click! To hell with light, to darn with shadows!
But there's one thing we are forgetting here. "Our eyes rely on shadows to recognize shapes." There is no useful shadow cues if the light source and the lens is coming from the same angle. So guys, don't point and shoot without thinking, or else you have to be happy with the "deer in the spotlight" look of your photo.
So does that mean you have to throw away the flash that came with your camera, or never use it? No! Remember the fill flash? It serves really well to minimize dark shadows in harsh sunlight. And not only that, accessory flash can be a useful tool, if used correctly. There's an array of strategies to use flash effectively.

Strategy 1: Get the flash off-camera.

Modern DSLRs provides the option of using a separate flash not attached directly on the camera. Even if you do not own a DSLR, never worry... buy an Flash bracket, which holds the flash on to the side of the camera, instead of the usual "top-of-the lens".

Strategy 2: Bounce flash

Another good option is to get a dual flash. In this case, the main flash fires to the ceiling. Creating an illusion of light coming from the top. And a second low-power flash fires straight ahead to compensate the dark shadows forming otherwise.

Strategy 3: Attach a diffuser

Diffusers are small translucent plastic cubes, that fits on to the flash head to diffuse the harsh light coming from it. Diffusers really play their part well in creating a soft light, but they waste too much of light, causing the range of the flash to diminish considerably.

Flash cool tip: wrap a colored cellophane sheet onto the flash to get some tint on your photos, if you want them to be cooler, use blue, yellow for a golden light, and red for a warm tint!

Light 3: Overcast Skylight.

Every time we are shooting in the sunlight, the bright sun offers us huge amount of natural light as well as harsh shadows. If you are taking the advantage of the free bright light, you have to take the shadows as well. It's a package deal. The fill-in flash cannot always minimize the effect too.

Here comes the natural solution for harsh shadows: OVERCAST SKYLIGHT

Best overcast skylights are available on those days when the sun is high and the sky is covered with pale grey clouds. Those days, you will never have to bring out your flash to hide the dark shadow patches. Beautiful portraits: simply, naturally! This soft light not only helps to create brilliant portraits, but capturing minute architectural details also.

Overcast or rainy days are great to capture nature also. Go out to the garden, have a splish-splash, shoot the brilliant colors of nature saturated to optimum. This is the time when grass is at its greenest, and the dandelion is at its yellowest.

This "mother of all softboxes" is not without problems, though. Too much of sky in your pictures may look boring, how much exceptional they may be. So, try to include as little sky as possible in your shots.

This shot, although came out nicely, is a bit boring because of the flat white sky.

OVERCAST COOL TIP: Overcast skies are slightly more "blue" than normal skies. So if you are using a film camera with normal daylight film, use an 81C warming filter. And if you are a digital camera user, simply turn the "white balance" to cloudy.

Light 1: Landscapes in sunlight.

"LIGHTS...CAMERA...ACTION!!"

Light is the most important factor in art of photography.

Photography literally means, “To write with light”. But which light? Not any, as different type of light is required to shoot different subjects. Choosing the right light can run or ruin your shot.

First we will discuss the light which started the photographic history, and is completely free of cost. Sunlight.

You can get a lot of light from that ball of burning gas; however, you’ll have to get a bit tricky to get the best light needed for your shot.

In this post, we will learn how to use sunlight for shooting landscapes.

Landscapes come out in their best shape in sunlight. However, overhead sunlight can be more damaging to the beauty of a landscape than enhancing it. Our eyes, being accustomed to rely on shadows for the sense of depth, finds a landscape rather "flat" in the mid-day due to the short shadows casted by the overhead sun.

It is always better to shoot the landscape in the morning or late afternoon, when the sun is casting long shadows. In fact, sunset provides a warm golden light over the terrain, which I prefer for the Landscapes, over the morning pink light.

Nonetheless, it is possible to get a reasonably good photograph in the mid-day light, if the subject is compelling enough, and you are looking for descriptive shots like those found in a travel brochure.

LANDSCAPE COOL TIP: Always look for some clouds in the sky. Cloudless skies appear dull and uninteresting. If you don’t get clouds, try to keep as little sky in the frame as possible.

Next post- Portraits in Sunlight.