It’s all about the light

Whatever light you have at any given moment is the light you need to work with. Modification of the light might be required – it may need filtering, shaping or diffusing.

You might need special gear to adapt to certain light conditions, e.g., astrophotography has certain types of lenses that are recommended. Fast glass is recommended for situations where light levels will be poor – sports events inside gyms, music and stage events, churches for weddings, etc.

Too much light can also be a problem with harsh shadows and blown out highlights.

Differential light where you have patches of bright light and shadow within the area you are working, which makes it difficult to get a good exposure. Learning to use a flash or another artificial light source has its own challenges as well as added costs in buying the hardware required.

Learning to work with the light available and knowing how to adapt to it to get the best image possible is one of the biggest challenges photographers face.

Light has color, depth, dimensionality, texture, tone, shadow, and behaves in certain ways, dependent on some fundamental rules of physics.

One day there will be a moment when you finally “see” the way a photographer does when you see how light falls, how light and shadow are interdependent, and how you can use them to add depth and drama to your images.