Welcome to our P52! This project is designed to get you out with your camera once a week in a meaningful way. Each week I will post a prompt for you to consider. The prompts are merely suggestions, and you are free to shoot off topic if you wish. All images posted must be taken by you, be safe for work, and be taken with this project in mind. Please do not post archive photos. For a further discussion of the guidelines, please refer to this thread, and you can find the previous weeks linked there if you missed them. Feel free to join in at any time of the year, and you may go back to missed weeks if you still wish to participate.
Week 46 | Artificial Light
We are coming into the homestretch of this project! Hard to believe we only have six weeks left after this theme. But for now we are going to focus on artificial light for this week.
As we now head into the quiet winter months, many of us will experience the shortening of days and lengthening of nights. Photographers often bemoan the lack of light, and with good reason, but that doesn’t mean we need to put our cameras away for the upcoming months, especially with how good modern sensors handle higher ISO values.
Artificial light encompasses all light sources that aren’t the sun. Flash, strobe, streetlights, stadium lights for a sporting event or concert all qualify. Creative light sources include car lights (interior and exterior), light from a tv or iPad, candles from a birthday cake, a flashlight, or campfire. Some of you might already have begun decorating for Christmas, and strand and other holiday lights can make for lovely images.
A big consideration when using alternative light sources is to make sure your white balance is accurate. Indoor lamp light tends to be much warmer than the sun, and you will need to use a much cooler white balance than you might expect. White balance is the process of counteracting a given light source's natural Kelvin temperature to bring the color of the light closer to what our brains perceive the color to be. Your white balance sliders may seem to be at wonky numbers, but if you struggle with getting the color feel free to use auto white balance or to convert to black and white.
Lastly, to the extent that you are able, do pay attention to the direction and quality of light that you are using. Sometimes you simply aren’t able to change how the light falls on your subject, but if you are able to, keep in mind our discussions of side and back light and how to use the light to enhance your subject, rather than becoming unnecessarily harsh or unflattering.
Week 46 | Artificial Light
We are coming into the homestretch of this project! Hard to believe we only have six weeks left after this theme. But for now we are going to focus on artificial light for this week.
As we now head into the quiet winter months, many of us will experience the shortening of days and lengthening of nights. Photographers often bemoan the lack of light, and with good reason, but that doesn’t mean we need to put our cameras away for the upcoming months, especially with how good modern sensors handle higher ISO values.
Artificial light encompasses all light sources that aren’t the sun. Flash, strobe, streetlights, stadium lights for a sporting event or concert all qualify. Creative light sources include car lights (interior and exterior), light from a tv or iPad, candles from a birthday cake, a flashlight, or campfire. Some of you might already have begun decorating for Christmas, and strand and other holiday lights can make for lovely images.
A big consideration when using alternative light sources is to make sure your white balance is accurate. Indoor lamp light tends to be much warmer than the sun, and you will need to use a much cooler white balance than you might expect. White balance is the process of counteracting a given light source's natural Kelvin temperature to bring the color of the light closer to what our brains perceive the color to be. Your white balance sliders may seem to be at wonky numbers, but if you struggle with getting the color feel free to use auto white balance or to convert to black and white.
Lastly, to the extent that you are able, do pay attention to the direction and quality of light that you are using. Sometimes you simply aren’t able to change how the light falls on your subject, but if you are able to, keep in mind our discussions of side and back light and how to use the light to enhance your subject, rather than becoming unnecessarily harsh or unflattering.
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