Into the light

Tags

art, backlighting, blogging101, fine art, flowers, Light, macro, Photography

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle. – Walt Whitman

Faded beauty

The next four weeks of my 52 Week project I am concentrating on backlighting and different ways of using it in my photography.

Most guides on photography advise you to shoot with the sun or light source behind you to illuminate your subject from the front. This is in itself good advice which will often produce very good, evenly lit images. However, rules are sometimes there to be broken:-)

Simply put backlighting is when a light source is behind the main subject and you are shooting towards it. While some might find it counterintuitive to shoot into the light, the effects can be quite magical. By having the light behind the subject of the photo, the finer details of an object can be enhanced as well as the capture of some lovely silhouettes and sunbursts.  Landscape photography works well with backlighting, especially with translucent flowers and foliage or rim lighting of objects in the background.  Even atmospheric elements for example fog or steam can be intensified and therefore alter the mood of an image immensely.

To get the correct exposure it is best to use either Spot or Partial metering, which allows you to take a very specific meter reading directly from the main subject.

The top photo was taken in my kitchen looking out towards the bright sunshine coming in through my conservatory windows, I loved the way the details on the Orchid flower drying out were intensified giving it a very delicate feel and greater texture, more so I think than it would have been if I had shot the photo in the opposite direction (into the darker room inside my house). The photo below was taken at night and I used a torch to illuminate the petals from behind which I think highlights the layered petals quite well. Let me know what you think, do they work?

Shining Crysanthemum

Today’s Blogging 101 prompt was to create a blogroll, as I do not particularly want any more widgets on my sidebar I have decided to create a page of some of the sites I do visit regularly. I will constantly add to these as I know I have left quite a few off. Do you have any photography sites that you visit a lot and find helpful, I would love to hear about them?

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Tags

art, daily, fine art, Harry Potter, photigraphy101, photo101, Photography, Postaday

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

– Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban- Quote by Albus Dumbledore

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Today in Photography 101 we were asked to “share an image that creates a sense of mystery. To manipulate the light available to you to create a particular effect — use it to cast shadows and highlights to create a moody image. Work with natural light, or find an artificial light source.”

The above photo was taken on a trip to The Making of Harry Potter at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour. I have two very big Harry Potter fans who just love it here, so I will at some point probably do a full post on it, as I have a lot of photos sitting on my hard drive! The stage lights falling on the entrance pendulum to Hogwarts caught my eye, the direction and quality of the light I felt gave it a real sense of mystery which I thought was perfect for todays prompt.

I would love to know what you think?