Posted March 8th, 2008 by Some Random Nerd

Not all that long ago, I thought I'd got over my geeky impulses that were making me want to spend all my money on stuff I didn't really need. I got over the fact that I wasn't playing a Gibson Les Paul wasn't really what was holding me back from being a real life guitar hero. I got over the fact that not having thousands of pounds to spend on the latest synthesisers and recording equipment wasn't what was stopping me from being a great songwriter.

Now I'm getting into photography. I know that the most important thing is being in the right place at the right time and being ready with your camera, and that a big part of being a good photographer is having the patience to get to the right place and then wait around for the right time, but… well, I am having a hard time convincing myself that I wouldn't be taking better photos if I just had some more gadgets to attach to my camera. Dammit...

Still, I think I am kind of right about this one though. If I had more zoom on my "standard" lens, then I'd have more control over how I frame my pictures (that is, before I start cutting bits off the edges and losing picture quality.) I do have a zoom lens (70-300mm), but I can't then pull back to take a "normal" picture without swapping lenses around. I have a prime lens (50mm, f1.8) which is great for low light pictures or playing around with the aperture, but then I can't play around with the framing that zoom gives you. While it's good fun to play around with the different kinds of pictures you can get with different kinds of lenses, I would probably be better off on working on improving the kinds of pictures that I'm already taking. And the one thing that I've learnt so far that makes a bigger difference to the quality of a picture than any other factor is lighting.

There is a clue in the name of this new hobby that points at how important it is. "Photo" is greek for "light." The art of photography is capturing light through a lens and recording it on a light sensitive surface (either a chemically reactive film or a digital sensor.) It should be obvious that the most important factor is the light that you're capturing, but the combination of the human eye and brain makes for an incredible piece of machinery (for want of a better word), and it's hard not to take it for granted. In fact, it tends not to be until you're presented with the results of a camera that you even see what's happening with it.

Take a look around and ask yourself what colour the light it. Chances are, as far as you're concerned, the light is either white or colourless. But it isn't- your eyes will adapt to the colour of the light around you and ignore it. If you're in the shadows on a bright, cloudless, sunny day, then you're mainly being lit up by blue light from the sky. You probably don't notice it, because your eyes adapt to it, but find a white wall that's in the shade (ie. not being directly illuminated by the sun)- it will look slightly blue. Sunlight has yellow, orange and red in it. Fluorescent lighting has a bluish tint to it. If you're indoors in the evening, then you're probably either being illuminated by orange light bulbs, or the blue light from a TV or computer screen. If you're outdoors in the street, and your eyes aren't acclimatised to the coloured light from the lightbulbs, take a look at the windows of houses- you'll be able to see the colours of them quite clearly. If you have a camera handy, make sure that the light setting is set to a fairly neutral setting (eg. the "cloudy day" setting") and take a photo of your room. You'll see a clearly orange tone to the picture- the same sort of orange that you see from outside. But you won't see the colour when you look around the room yourself.

So, I've learnt a few things about light, and why you can't judge it particularly well with your eye alone.

Anyway, there are two ways to go with my new found understanding of light- either start getting up early and making the most of the natural light at dawn and dusk, or trying to control the light myself with some more controllable flashguns (or "speedlights", as Nikon call them.)

Like I said- I'm a gadget freak. I think you can guess the direction I'm most likely to head...