It is mastery of light that marks out the work of the truly great photographers. By knowing the rules that light obeys and understanding some of it's qualities and composition can help a photographer to work with light. It is important in photography that images are not spoilt with flare, lost highlights and shadow detail or colours that lack saturation. Time of day, for example, is an important decision in photography as it determines the direction/angle of light and also colour quality. Supplementing natural light with flash can make the subject of the photograph, or landscape for example, look entirely different. I tried this out by taking photographs of a view of my garden and using the flash, no flash and auto settings on my camera (examples are below):
No Flash - natural light is visible giving the image a more realistic effect. The natural light allows more detail on the trees to be depicted, and there is also enough light given to show some detail of the flowers. However, the image is quite dark and gloomy which is not always appealing for a viewer.
Flash - Using flash often results in loss of detail, and in this case there quite a difference in colour and focus of detail. However, this photograph appears much less 'dull' and much more summery.
Auto - This photograph contains a reasonable amount of detail and light; it's a fairly good balance between the other two photographs.
Studio photographers, however, definitely have the greatest control over light.
'Through this photographic eye you will be able to look out on a new light-world, a world for the most part uncharted and unexplored, a world that lies waiting to be discovered and revealed.' - Edward Weston (photographer)
It is important when looking at photographs to not only see the subject, but observe how the subject is lit;
It is important to not point the camera at the sun as it often takes on the form of the subject as opposed the the intended subject. An example of this is in David Prakel's photograph above; the light itself has become the subject of the photograph. The lighting in this case has created a sort-of contrast between the foreground and background - in the foreground there is much more detail being portrayed, where as the background is much harder to make out because of the light from the sun. In my opinion, whilst looking at this image, the lighting makes it easier for you to place yourself in the scene - to a certain extent it is realistic because often we are somewhat 'blinded' by the sun. Whether intended or not, the subject is now the lighting - as a viewer you are drawn to the details which the lighting highlights rather than the barn in the center of the image as any detail on the barn (which is likely to keep the attention of the viewer) has been lost through lighting.
The photograph above was taken by myself. I purposely included aimed my camera towards the sun light to see how the image would turn out. In this case, just like the image above it has added more detail to the foreground of the photograph and has a less detailed background. As mentioned above this gives a realistic effect of actually 'being there' for the viewer, as your view is generally restricted when you are 'blinded' by the sun. The lighting in this case also adds more detail to the thorn plant in the foreground of the photograph. In my opinion the natural light from the sun in this case makes the photograph unique in it's detail and in some ways quite attractive, but on the other hand the image could have been much more interesting for an audience if it had more background detail.
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