It's been a while since we've had a photography lesson on here. For the new-comers, my husband is a photography teacher and I've always wanted to learn. So he's teaching me and I'm posting my lessons word for word on here. This lesson surprised me with it's simplicity but when I did my homework, I was pretty impressed. So here we go:
We've always been told from an early age that natural is better. Whenever I complained of being hungry, my mum used to always say, "have a piece of fruit". As I get older, I'm learning sometimes the hard way that what you put into your body, is what you get out. And that definately means natural is better. Well, the same goes for photos. The only problem is, knowing how to capture that properly.
As with fruit, sometimes you love it, and sometimes another mushy banana that I may or may not have accidentally left in the bottom of my school bag just ain't that a-peeling (get it?). So mums, how do you get your kids to eat fruit? It's all about presentation and timing. Same goes for natural light.
Midday light can be harsh and overpowering, shining down directly from above gives harsh contrast. Extremes of light and shade which can cause under or over-exposing and that oh so nasty glare which loves to wash our all of your photos. Mottled light, like the light coming through a half shady tree, can be interesting but doesn't always give good results. The best and easiest time to shoot, is early morning and late afternoon. The sun is lower in the sky and gives a softer, less harsh (filtered) light. And anyone who has ever laid eyes on a sunrise or sunset, will tell you that everything looks more interesting at that time. Plus you have a much more interesting backdrop to shoot against, courtesy of old mate up stairs who has a nice little pallette at his disposal.
This may seem like a pretty basic lesson, and probably advice that you've heard many times before but humour me with a little experiment. Here's your homework:
Pick a subject, if it's a model keep the same outfit, doesn't have to be a model though, could be a car or a teapot or anything in between. Shoot it with natural light only, no cheating by putting it in the shade. Shoot it at three different times of the day, morning (before 8am), midday and late afternoon (after 4:30pm).
If you like you can email your photos to me and I'll pop them up here, or tag me on instagram (username is eviefish). It's amazing the difference some good light can make to an ordinary everyday object. Not that I'm calling your models ordinary or everyday.
Here are my photos: 
xx
