Sunday, May 24, 2015

Dramatic Light

I run a photography support group. Each week we are posting up new short tutorials and we will all challenge ourselves and share an image that has to do with the tutorials. Nothing long and fancy. just short, to the point tutorials. This is our first week. DRAMATIC LIGHT!

Light is a huge part of photography, right? There's so much you can do with it. Dreamy light, back light, dappled light, low light, harsh light, golden hour light, light leaks, light flares. There's SO much. One of my favorite ways to use light is dramatically. Dramatic light is moodier, darker light usually. High contrasted light, low light. Many things you can do to make light dramatic. Learn to use light to your advantage and really push your camera settings to make your images come out how you want. Don't let light control you. You control the light. 

Use your settings to create gorgeous, creative images with your light. What I like to do a lot is shoot under exposed back lighting to make focus more on details, textures, shapes. Shooting under exposed with water shots to make the water more obvious and contrasted. Shoot under exposed to focus on the outline, detail of some gorgeous texture in clothing. To make silhouettes of your subjects. I love shooting under exposed back lighting. Here are some examples. 


 Above I shot underexposed to focus more on the water contrast.



 Above I shot underexposed to focus more on the light and to highlight her hair.



Above I used the light to really focus on the gorgeous golden tone of it and her hair blowing in the wind.



 Here I shot again, underexposed to focus on their bodies and body language. More of a silhouette shot. Also, by shooting underexposed back light it really brought out the water.



 Use window light to make dramatic scenes. Here I used my settings to shoot underexposed focusing on just the details of his hands and feet and the reflection on the hardwood floor underneath the carpet he fell asleep on.



Here I shot to focus more on the golden tones kissing her hair. With light light behind me and her being in a darker area made the image super dark except where the light was hitting her hair.

These are just a few ways I use light dramatically. Let's see your take on dramatic light. Window, low, backlit in a dramatic way, contour your subject, clothing or hair. Anything you want. Get creative. I can't wait to see what you all come up with. Thank you. Until next time, XOXO! ~Amber