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Lesson One, Let there Be Natural Light

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Notice the many differences in "natural" light illustrated in this collection of photos. Monet was always fooling around, painting bridges under different lighting conditions. Open shade, direct sun, bounce light, fog. See these differences and you can soon learn to create them on location. Communicate this language of light to a photographer, pick techniques that show your project to its advantage, and actually get what you want out of a photo shoot. I'll post a new lesson every couple weeks, they will all be on file here, and I hope you all find them useful and fun.
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Notice the many differences in "natural" light illustrated in this collection of photos. Monet was always fooling around, painting bridges under different lighting conditions. Open shade, direct sun, bounce light, fog. See these differences and you can soon learn to create them on location. Communicate this language of light to a photographer, pick techniques that show your project to its advantage, and actually get what you want out of a photo shoot. I'll post a new lesson every couple weeks, they will all be on file here, and I hope you all find them useful and fun.

  • Notice the many differences in "natural" light illustrated in this collection of photos. Monet was always fooling around, painting bridges under different lighting conditions. Open shade, direct sun, bounce light, fog. See these differences and you can soon learn to create them on location. Communicate this language of light to a photographer, pick techniques that show your project to its advantage, and actually get what you want out of a photo shoot. I'll post a new lesson every couple weeks, they will all be on file here, and I hope you all find them useful and fun.
  • Originally shot for Bayside Marin, this photo now leads a triptych of Sun, Buddha, and Flowing Water
  • With late afternoon direct sunlight on this figure, the shadow becomes an important part of the composition.
  • Finally in the triptych, indirect light, sun off a stucco building, lights the flowing water. This was part of a shoot for Joie de Vivre Hospitality
  • This photo is so memorable partially because it was taken in the first light of dawn. This section of the Great Wall is called Jinshanling and it's a three hour drive from Beijing. The wall seemed to go on forever with Mongolia on the left and China on the right. The rim light that feathers the edges of all the trees and architecture was gone about 20 minutes later--too spread out to be magical.
  • Jake's, the oldest and the first of the McCormick and Schmick seafood group of restaurants is in Portland. It is historic, traditional, and beautiful in the diffuse light of the morning, which poured in tall side windows. I saw this scene scouting on my first morning, noted the time, and went back with camera and tripod, and a patient waiter, early the next day. The shot still looks spontaneous and was taken just before the doors opened. It's the company's favorite of the 37 restaurants I've shot for them around the country.
  • Sedona Rouge was a ten day shoot. The buildings were finished and everything was in place. The signature red umbrellas looked great in the open shade, the building best in the sunlight. So this shot had to be planned for six a.m. Marketing director Patti Stuckey was always there ahead of us.
  • In Beijing for Resorts and Great Hotels magazine, at the Palace Hotel, a few blocks from the Forbidden City. Traveled regularly for them for several years, with an assistant/stylist and 17 cases of gear. Now we use a bit less gear, and smaller cameras, but film or digital its still all about the light.
  • Lots to shoot in Las Vegas. Rock and Waterscape created stone landscapes, stone cliffs, stone and steel trees strong enough for lions and tigers. They made stone Roman palaces, stone for Bellagio and Ceasars. Fountains and aquariums were made on a grand scale . It was fun traveling around the country for them. <a href="http://www.rockandwaterscape.com/recentprojects.htm">http://www.rockandwaterscape.com/recentprojects.htm</a> For our purposes here in Lesson One, lots of opportunities to use "natural light"
  • Assignment for MBH Architecture, shared with Marriott. Palm Desert Ca. Low early light emphasized the repeating arches. Nice reflection, great clouds, and balloons, courtesy of the spirit who watches over photographers, complete the picture.
  • an important shot of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. These tropical skies will sometimes go black with polling clouds, while the sun shimes freely in another part of the sky. Our eye is not used to sunlit buildings with these dramatic skies. Its fleeting, but so wonderful when it happens. In Puerto Rico for Howard Fields and Associates, shooting Hyatt Cerromar, where Howard had created what was then the longest artificial river in the world for the Resort.
  • Everyone expects sunny days in their photos from tropics, so BlueWaterPictures has evolved a series of sun dances, cause its certainly not sunny every day, especially when you're ask to travel and shoot in the summer. Non the less, we found some Caribbean sun for these shots.
  • Traditional Caymanian architecture set off in "hazy bright light" I had a business on Grand Cayman for several years shooting hotels and condo interiors, and diving, and doing adds for local businesses and magazines. The natural light of the tropics was exciting and challenging because it changed so quickly.
  • This redwood room just sings the title of this chapter, "let there be light." There is a nice warm glow from the redwood and a beautiful garden outside. Its part of a redwood water tower restored by Marilyn Gump in Marin. I did use a couple of umbrellas to add some fill to the interior.
  • Bounce Light...a pretty old photo from Seoul, Korea. I was there printing another book, but of course took time to tour. Of interest to us here is the light. Direct sun is hitting the ground covered by white pavement which surrounds the buildings. It is throwing a tremendous amount of light back up under the roof and into the covered painted surfaces.
  • The Grand Wailea on Maui. This is natural light at dusk, when daylight balances with the landscape lighting, and everything is enveloped in soft and even illumination. One of two trips for the Grand Wailea, Spa Grande.
  • Waited three days for the overcast skies to open up, with everything ready to go on a moments notice. Steamboat Springs Sheraton, for Resorts and Great Hotels. A western town, it was pretty easy to find great hats, boots, and three friends, staff and ski instructors, to be "relaxin in the tub, showing everything was alright." It certainly is in this little corner of the world.
  • For Joie de Vivre and Chip Conley, this was part of a multi-hotel photo shoot with a casual editorial feel. Late day natural light in open shade brought out some warm interior lighting seen through the door and window. The bike and leaning sign juxtapose "friendly and accessible" with the formal elegance of the entry.
  • Mottled sunlight light through clouds flowes across this landscape. The clouds were acting as gobos, a film term for something that goes between the light source and subject, which can shape and modify it. I use these all the time in interior work and use smaller ones for food shots. This is still "natural light". You can see it in this field and then learn to re-create it on location.
  • Oahu, north end, the Iao Valley, which is topped by Ios Needle. Usually in heavy fog, today the sun shone free, backlighting this palm and creating pronounced shadows on the left of the scene, and behind the palm. This makes everything really 3 D looking. The landscape is lit in layers and we'll have a chapter about layered lighting for interior phtography. For that matter you can do it on a plate of food. Same exact technique we see naturally ocuring here, and on the Great Wall shot and the Sedona Rouge (red umbrella) shot too.
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