Light can make or break a photo
Photography is all about Light!
Well, it’s obvious right? … or maybe not.
In my opinion quality of light is single most overlooked variable in photography. Amateur photographers constantly try to get new gear, upgrade lens or camera, they pump photography with money and muscles – but not many of them realize that, it’s the light that makes or breaks the photo. Shoot same scenery during golden hour (Golden hour: max 1 hour from sunrise, or 1 hour before sunset) and compare it with one shot at noon, when sun is at it’s highest point. Difference is huge!
Tip of the day: Remember, if your own shadow is less than 7 meters long, don’t even take camera out of the bag! (During golden hour, sun is near the horizon and it drops long shadows. During noon sun sits right above our heads, light is harsh and there are no shadows).
In short, doesn’t matter what camera you have, even iphone 5mpx camera is capable of producing good looking images without any post processing if the light is good.
Watch this video to see my point!
Don’t forget to check out Fstoppers.com. It’s an interesting resource, with bunch of videos documenting photographers in the work process.
There are 5 comments on this post.
Trackback URL | Comments RSS FeedSandro, I agree with you on the point. Light is important.
But those guyz in the video are fooling around; iphone does have a crappy camera, but their lightning gear is well in the range of 5-10K$, so I don’t see what that video wants to say really… other than well, most obvious, you can spend $$$ on a great camera or $$$ on lightning gear, both ways work – but yes, gear makes difference.
I heard it’s not about the “equipment” but yet, to shoot those kinds of shots even with a crappy camera, you STILL have to invest in expensive lighting. So even though you use a cheap camera, the lights are still going to set you back a pretty penny. I myself prefer natural lighting.
Thanks for sharing.
I do have both professional SLR cameras and lucky me, I do have iPhone 4. Well, I would say, not the camera nor the lighting equipments make the photo looks nice!!! You guess!! That’s right, it’s the photographer. I wouldn’t believe that the photos you have shown us were taken with an iPhone without having seen it in actioin!!!!
Thanks
well, I personally trust the source of the video.
I’ve iphone 3gs myself and photos come out okay… that said, I never tried using strobes to push the limits of a little phone camera.
Lighting is key and no it does not need to cost a great deal. I have seen great images made with a couple of 14.95 reflectors from the nearest farm and ranch store. They were clipped to an upright 1X2 cemented into a gallon coffee can for stands and diffused with a remnant of white rip-stop nylon. A few pieces of white foam core provided fill. Spend under a hundred bucks and start shooting.