Photography is All About Light

The word photography comes from photos for light and graph meaning to draw or write. So if you want be a successful photographer, you need to learn about light. There are many types of light and this blog post concerns HARD LIGHT and SOFT LIGHT

An example of hard light is bright sunshine which is direct and creates harsh shadows. Another example is an on-camera flash unit. Hard light can create an image with washed out details.

Soft light is indirect or diffused and an example of this is a cloudy bright day. The cloud layer evens out the sunlight and acts as a huge diffuser. This is the pleasing quality of light create great portraits. Studio photographers spend lots of money buying all sorts of equipment in an effort to put soft light on their models.

When it comes to light sometime you have to take what you get. But you can learn to manipulate light. There are several ways to soften light.

Bouncing light off a white ceiling causes the light to reflect and soften. There is a reason the ceilings in most homes and offices are white is that this helps brightens the room.

The Dutch Master painters of the1600s such as Rembrandt and Vermeer appreciated the quality of soft light. What was their preferred light source? These painters loved a window that faced the North, because the light that enters a Northern exposure is indirect and diffused. Take a look at the portraits painted by Rembrandt and you will see fine examples soft lighting.

An easy way to bounce light is to use the ceiling or a wall. Just make sure the surface is a light color. I have also done a lot using a white piece of poster board which cost about a dollar. Photo equipment manufacturers such as Photoflex and Lastolite sell folding reflector disks that can he used to alter light. I have one with white, silver and gold surfaces. The gold adds a bit of a warm tone.

Another way to obtain soft light is to place a sheer cloth between the light source and the subject. Draperies, curtains and tents can provide a useful diffusion of hard light. Photoflex and other companies sell translucent disks for softening harsh light.

Another great item especially when it comes to product photography is a light tent. Light tents help you get soft even light on the subject while also reducing reflections. There are all shapes and sizes and most are collapsible. Cloud Dome offers a kit that includes fluorescent lights and a background. The whole thing folds flat so it can be taken on location.

As a photographer in search of soft light you can wait for a cloudy day or use Northern exposure of employ some equipment to modify the light to your demands.

Even Great Photographers Had to Start Somewhere

Edward Steichen, one of the great pioneer photographers, had a less than amazing experience when he first started taking photos.

This great photographic artist was one of the talented people of the early 1900s who helped change the attitudes toward photography which was viewed as a novelty or a fad whereas painting was considered high art.

Photography eventually found a home in the world of art and Steichen won many awards but back in 1895 when he obtained his first camera he was not an instant success.

In the book, A life in Photography, Steichen recounts how he got started in photography as a teenager living in Milwaukee. As I began reading, I expected to learn how even from day one he produced great art as his natural talent flowed out. Wrong. Steichen said the first camera he purchased was a Kodak that took a roll of 50 exposures. The result of his first roll was 49 misses and one hit. Yikes.

But he kept trying and later he upgraded to a camera that used 4x5 glass plates. In the book he told how he took a photo of a skyscraper in Milwaukee and then in his home darkroom started to develop the plate. As the young photographer submerged the glass plate in the tray of chemicals and rocked the solution back and forth the image appeared causing him to feel great satisfaction. He celebrated with a loud whoop of joy which frightened his mother because she was worried about all those poisonous chemicals he was using. But he assured her that what she heard was a shout joy not distress.

But as the developing process continued Steichen’s joy faded because the photo kept turning darker and darker. Being a novice Steichen had figured the exposure wrong and set the camera to allow too much light onto the plate. Eventually, the image on his plate was so dark that nothing was recognizable. Finally, as he completed the process and took his image upstairs to rinse it in the sink. He was determined to get a print and after an all day exposure was able to get enough light to pass through his overexposed plate to make a decent print of the Milwaukee skyscraper.

As the months and years passed Steichen began exhibiting his work and building a reputation as a professional photographer. He forged bonds with the Museum of Modern Art where his photos and those of other photographers were displayed for the public. In my opinion the pinnacle of his artistic expressions was the “Family of Man” exhibition of 1955.

This amazing exhibit of photos from 68 nations taken by great and unknown photographers showed people living, eating, dancing, playing, fighting, laughing, giving birth and dying. A book by the same name became an international best seller.

So even if his first roll of film was only two percent successful, Steichen went to become a great pioneering photographer praised by artists, writers and the general public.

Japanese 35 mm cameras of the 1970s

When I was in high school I got interested in photography. I wanted to own a nice camera so I started to save my money to buy one. While looking at camera magazines I read the articles about the great cameras and lenses. The front of the magazines featured full page adds by manufacturers such as Canon, Nikon, Konica, Mamiya, Minolta, Miranda, Olympus, Pentax, Topcon and Yashika. Most of the cameras were made in Japan.
Flipping to the back of the magazine, a reader could find pages and pages of advertisements from camera stores. The type in the ads was very tiny and hard to read. Each ad listed dozens and dozens of cameras and accessories. Most of the camera stores were located in New York and did a lot of mail order business to customers far and wide.
I did not want to take a chance on a log distance transaction so I just looked at the ads and dreamed. There were two camera stores about 30 miles from my home and sometimes I would go inside and look at the cameras and pick up some of the glossy brochures about photo equipment.
When I started getting almost enough money to buy a camera I went to one of the stores and asked the clerk if I could see some cameras. The only camera I could afford was an East German Praktika but it did not impress me, so I decided to wait. About a month later I had enough money to buy a Canon TX, an entry level camera with no fancy features. It was a sold camera made of metal and glass. Since I had withdrawn nearly all the money from my savings account I could not afford extras like lenses, filters or strobe lights. But I had a 35 mm camera and film so I was on my way.