NATURAL LIGHT & THREE FACTORS INFLUENCE

More attention should be given to Light to improve your photography. Different types of natural light produce variety of subject appearance — thought the source of light is same for all the subject. Try to learn how to achieve the good quality pictures with the right light for your subject by understanding  the  particular time of day and weather.

Three factors influence the natural light and they are - the time of day, camera direction and weather. Even though all natural light originates from the sun, a subject's illumination depends on several components.

Natural Light And Three Factors

Depending on the time of day, the overall illumination changes with a different white balance or contrast. We'll start with the sun at its highest, then see what happens as the day progresses to sunset .

From high noon, the sun dips closer to the horizon. This results in lower contrast, the atmosphere filters more of the sun's blue light — resulting in warmer light overall.

Midday lighting is direct, downward sunlight. Such light scatters very less and diffuse through the atmosphere which bounces off the ground and illuminates the subject indirectly. This is the hardest and neutral colored lighting and is the least desirable type of natural light. Due to these drawbacks, mostly  photographers keep their camera away. 

Many photographers encourage the use of polarizing filters to manage contrast since this make the sky appear quite dark and blue. Sometimes when the shadow appears too harsh and insufficient color saturation is there, then it is better to convert the image into black and white, this may also create a good impact on the image due to midday light high contrast.

 Mid-evening and morning are not as neutrally colored as during midday, but also not as warm as a sunset. It's also less harsh, but also isn't as soft as during twilight or overcast lighting. With these, a photographer cannot use lighting qualities to emphasize features in their subject.

The hour after sunrise and before sunset is called the "golden hour" and  is considered as the most desirable light for photography. It casts long shadows and gives subjects a warm glow.

Sunsets and sunrises make interesting and highly varied lighting, it creates the sky to light up with a soft, warm light.

Sunsets and sunrises are often spectacular, but this doesn't always reflect well on an image. Make sure that the camera's white balance is properly set to increase the well  warm-looking scene. It is an Irony, when the lighting is most dramatic, at that time your camera is also likely to make an error with its exposure; try to take several photos, or use spot metering just in case.

Sunrise vs. Sunset. Although sunsets and sunrises are identical in theory, weather patterns can cause these to be quite different, so many photographers prefer one over the other. Some find that they're more comfortable to photograph during sunset over sunrise, because light quality builds up before sunset — whereas, n case of sunrises, the light is in full colors at starts and gradually fades. On the other hand, sunset photography is usually avoided due to distracting crowds and low laying mist. Sunrises have a calm, and particular when the scene involves  water, that isn't present during sunsets.

Twilight, dawn, and dusk mean the half hour before sunrise or after sunset — when the sky is still bright and  there is no longer any direct sunlight. The primary source of light is from  the sky, with warm and reddish and a cool blue or purple mixed colors on the sky. This is wonderfully soft, multicolored and it gives a calm and peaceful mood to the scene.

The best way of utilizing camera features and proper exposure is to use the tripod as the handheld photography is not all possible under such twilight conditions.

Shade and overcast light have a cool, soft appearance, since the light is spread across the entire sky, and there is no direct sunlight. Under such condition subject is influenced by bounced light from nearby objects.

What I think is that such lighting condition is ideal for outdoor portraits and landscapes.

To overcome such situation is to shoot in RAW. Later post processing can be done in the software to get the desired effect.