Light and Focus!

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography. – George Eastman

Light is the soul of photography, if you can find it, recognize it and manipulate it to your needs you will have success. It doesn't matter what 'kind' of photographer you are, you have to embrace the soul of photography... LIGHT. 

In these images the light was completely different. The butterfly was captured with light that was natural and not manipulated in any way. The way it reflects off the wet leaf and glistens adding highlights to the image was brought to the forefront of the image by using a large aperture setting. That allowed a lot of light into the shadows and it allowed the camera to capture the correct exposure for the subject of the butterfly. 

While in this image, the light was completely controlled being studio strobes and reflectors. Light was strategically placed to reflect off of some of the gem cuts and bring out the highlight of the silver flowers. What I am drawn to in this image is that the back of the bracelet is blurred so your focus is on all the beautiful details in the front. This effect can only be accomplished by using the same technique as with the butterfly. 

Understanding Aperture control. Your aperture is the control on your lens that is opened or closed depending on the setting. The Larger the aperture, the smaller the aperture number, the MORE light that is let in. It's a bit of a contradiction to most people. But once you remember smaller number = more light is reaching your exposure the easier it will be for you to recreate images like those above. By adding more light to your image through aperture you can capture images in darker settings, or create a smaller depth of field and focus on a specific part of your image and let everything else blur out. 

The Reflection Advantage

For this weeks last "retrospect" image I am going to take a look at one more way you can use reflection in your images. Anytime you have water, you have opportunity! This doesn't just apply to lakes, pools or other calm bodies of water although those are the most common. You can also take advantage of reflection off of water droplets, bubbles and wet sand, like I did below!

©Verte Photo Image available for purchase in my shop

This image was taken at sunset in CA on the beach. While most people think that is where the orange tones come from (the orange warm glow of the sunset light) that was not the whole of it! In truth there was a brick colored home much further back on the beach, but at the right angle, and with a smaller aperture I managed to blur the reflection of the house keeping the color but not the detail.


Happy Shooting!