Photography is About Light

Posted by frankb on Sep 1, 2010 in Creative Photography Blog | 0 comments

Everything about photography is about light. We can really say that photography IS LIGHT. Whether is morning, noon or evening, sunny, cloudy or storming, it is the light that either makes or breaks a good photograph.

It is about how you use the light to your best advantage. Those of you who have known me for a long time know that I love dark and white areas in my photography and I especially like silhouettes. (More about those in another blog).

A low morning or evening light will give more depth, in most cases, than a sun at high noon. But that can be debated too.

The photograph with this blog was captured early in the morning from the 21st floor of a hotel in downtown St. Louis. It is really a scene of transportation on and around the Mississippi River.

First the low angle sun highlights one side the towboat going down stream. But the light is not strong enough to competely black out the shadow area of the boat. If you look very carefully you will see a second towboat going upstream under the bridge. Also in the center of the photograph on the right side you will see several barges anchored against the shoreline of the river.

Then it catches the sides of the cars during rush hour traffic make them almost appear white on one side.,,as well as one side of the bridge.

The river appears very light as well from the low angle of the sun.  Now, look past the large electrical tower to the right and you will see a train crossing the railroad bridge.

The morning haze from the early morning sun adds an almost a surreal feeling to entire scene. All in all, there is a lot going on in this photograph. This scene, if captured an hour later or four hours later would have a completely different appearance to it.  But this light makes all the difference in the world.  Photograph taken August 2010.

I like it!