Natural Light - the sun, the sensor, and dynamic range

Natural light photography…

… is the subject I will be covering in the next three blog posts. Three videos that will attempt to address all you need to know to improve your understanding of natural light for photography.

natural light at work

This is the first of three videos on the subject of natural light. The Natural Light series is the second chapter in the Lighting for Photography series. Confused? Me too.

This was going to be one (very long) video, but I had a momentary flash of good judgement and decided it might be better received if I split it up into three (slightly) shorter videos. Yay!

the beauty of natural light

In this video I talk about the sun and the enormous amounts of energy that it generates. The discussion turns to luminosity, the measurement of light intensity, and how modern digital camera sensors work. I look at dynamic range and discuss the various ways in which we can work with light in situations where scene dynamic range exceeds our cameras' capabilities. I discuss filters and the art of exposure bracketing, before wrapping things up with a mini-rant about using the histogram.

There is a lot of information and a great many practical tips and useful suggestions to help you work better with natural light in your photography.

In part two, we will be looking at the color and directionality of light, and talking about how natural light can be modified. Part three focuses entirely on how to use natural light in your macro photography. I hope this series proves helpful, or entertaining, or both!

Before I go, a huge thank you to my Patreon supporters and to those kind folks who have made donations through my donation page (https://www.allanwallsphotography.com/donations). None of this would be possible without your generosity!

If you would like to support my efforts and help keep the videos coming, please consider signing up as a Patreon patron, which can be done by going to https://patreon.com/allanwallsphotography. I could certainly use your help!

All the best!

Allan