From the course: Photography Foundations: Composition

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Light as subject

Light as subject

From the course: Photography Foundations: Composition

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Light as subject

You can't hear it enough, so I am going to say it again, all photos begin with light. Good light will take an otherwise boring scene and give you a great photo. With bad light, it doesn't matter how interesting your subject is, you're going to have a hard time coming back with good results. I want you to try a very different type of exercise now. I want you to go out and shoot pictures with the idea of light itself as your subject. In other words, I want you to go out and look for interesting plays of light, an interesting splash of light, interesting contrast in light and shadow. Maybe a glint of light off of the highlight of something, anything that looks like an interesting play of illumination, I want you to try working that shot and turning it into an image. This is a great exercise. It's a really valuable exercise to come back to lot, for a couple of different reasons. First of all, with light as subject, you will begin to understand that whatever light is bouncing off of…

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