Secret Shortcuts to Light
The entire balance of any photo lies with the light quotient and the product of the light with lenses, camera, and focus. But the net light effect in any photo is much more than the sum of its parts. Seeing the light potential in any subject can save a ton of time capturing meaningful and profitable images.You can in fact take great microstock shots without mastering a Photoshop tome or Camera manual.
Conventional photography theory trains photographers to use light meters and f-stops. But my approach can be more organic. I tend to spy out subjects with so much light pouring from all sides that any photo drinks it in. true, beggars can’t be choosers. But if you can keep an eye out to subject material in natural light, you can save the light and shading problems for another day.
I tend to favor light saturated outdoor images, as the complexity of light and shutter speeds takes the joy out of a photo capturing walkabout for me. But with plenty of sunlight, the point-and-shoot philosophy reigns supreme. As long as I can remember to keep all my subject matter evenly in light or shadow, or a happy medium, I know there is relevant product in the net memory card “take”.
if you are using sunlight as your light provider, look for subject material so well under the sun that shadows and vantage points of light become part of the interest. Pictures can be so fresh to a new eye that the simplest items can be impactful and when related to textual prose they can punch the reader’s lights out with a website look or article home run. Remember, if people read magazines simply for the text they wouldn’t need 4 color printing and glossy stock to put them out.
When using sunlight for natural light and saturated light manual photography, look for shapes and lines, and colored objects which drink in light and make the colored element a richly presenting dynamic. The appeal of a mellow color in bright saturating light is the resonant element in almost every prize winning shot I’ve ever seen.
One sneaky technique I use it to find brilliantly refractive elements within the shot, like windows, mirrors, water surfaces and shiny metal. These introduce a sleek glamor to images that the eye picks up on at once. Simple subjects featuring one or two strong colors make a shot really stark in its effect. Using light and color shortcuts makes the shot look better than it is. Challenge your creative snapping abilities to find the quicker way to microstock success.
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