Article
A Certain Light - Outdoor Photography Dec 2005
Quality of light is something I strive for endlessly in my photographs. Yet while it might seem that I and other landscape photographers can conjure up special light from nowhere, this is far from the case. And while perfect light is itself elusive, defining light quality in words may be even more so. Any experienced landscape photographer will tell you that you are not photographing trees, rocks, mountains, lakes, plants and so forth, but the light reflecting off them. The subject matter itself is varied and complex, and the light quality that best reveals one subject may not be best for another. Some light is dramatic, theatrical, eye-catching; it may make a statement about the atmosphere of a place, but won't necessarily clarify the subtle details of texture and colour revealed by softer light.
Tactics
I use strategies to load the dice in my favour. For a start, I usually go out when the weather is changeable. Unbroken blue skies aren't interesting, and neither is uniform unbroken cloud. Sunshine and showers is my favourite. An open mind is also essential. When the picture I envisaged originally does not appear, an equally good one sometimes lies in the opposite direction. And while my strength, I think, is seeing the larger landscape, when the light is unhelpful for this approach I consider isolating detail. In the miniature landscape of rocks, sand, plants, grasses and so on, soft, flat light is often beautifully revealing. Revisiting familiar locations also improves my chances of 'getting lucky.'
I recently went to a photographic exhibition by Andrew Nadolski, entitled The End of the Land. Andrew has been photographing one beach in West Cornwall, a stretch no more than three hundred metres wide, for the last seven years. His body of work is a demonstration of the power of quiet light. There is not a single image in the entire show that uses direct sunlight; all are made under skies softened by cloud. He photographs on colour negative film, hardly renowned for its high contrast, but the subject matter is so strong, and his interpretation of it so clear that this low-key approach works perfectly. His images also champion the concept of becoming supremely familiar with your favourite subject.
Sky Studio
Anyone who has done photographic studio work will know something about lighting. With one or more lights and a variety of diffusers, reflectors, subtractors, flags, scrims, snoots and shades, it is possible to achieve an endless variety of lighting effects. By understanding the controls we use in the studio, we can better understand natural light. While we cannot control the daylight, we can see that the sun is our single point source of light, while the clouds (or absence thereof) are our reflectors, diffusers, subtractors etc. Clouds profoundly influence the colour and 'shape' (or modelling) of the light. Thus timing (the day, the hour and the second we make our pictures) is the one control we do have. So observe the sky constantly, for it is your outdoor studio.
When blanket cloud covers the sky, the sun is diffused through it, as is the blue sky beyond. The result? Cool 'shapeless' lighting without shadows. The opposite of this is a cloudless sunny day, where the sun acts like a spotlight in a dark room, casting hard shadows. The blue sky works like a subtractor, or 'light sump', offering little fill-in light, and often creating excessive contrast for effective photography.
Neither of these conditions is ideal for scenic landscapes. Falling somewhere in between is a sky full of broken cloud. This both diffuses and reflects the light, so contrast becomes manageable, and the sky itself becomes far more interesting. These are the conditions that usually work best for classic landscapes. Shadows cast by clouds across the land help describe depth, as the Flemish painters of the 17th C discovered, while the brightness of clouds helps fill the shadows, so reducing the excessive contrast produced by blue sky alone. Admittedly, some clouds are very dark, but while they may not add fill-in light they make a great backdrop for any landscape.
Winter Light
In addition, the position of the sun in the sky has a huge impact on the quality of light. When the sun is high overhead at noon, an absence of shadow leaves the landscape looking flat, and quite literally, 'overlit'. The same effect can be easily observed in the studio. Occasionally good results can be achieved in the middle of the day if the sky is exceptionally interesting in terms of its cloud cover. But usually the midday hours are best avoided for landscape photography. Except in the winter months, when the sun remains low in the sky all day.
The hour or so after sunrise or before sunset is likely to prove a better bet, for the sun's rays are not only softened and diffused by its oblique path through the layers of the atmosphere, but also wonderfully warmed. For colour photographers, this warmth is priceless. Shadow areas remain cool, lit only by clouds or blue sky, and a beautiful colour contrast is created. Painters frequently juxtapose colour opposites, such as orange and blue; these so-called complementary colours resonate against one another, and this chromatic contrast (one of colour, rather than tone) also enhances the effect of spatial depth.
In the UK, and especially in Scotland, we lie in northern latitudes with long summer days, and correspondingly short winter ones. The solar path lies low in the sky through the course of a winter day, and even midday light can be photogenic around the winter solstice. This makes winter a great time of year for photography. It is possible on a fine winters morning to rise at 7am, breakfast before dawn and be out to photograph the sunrise. If weather conditions remain helpful, we can photograph through the remaining six hours of daylight, and after sunset return to home, hotel or campsite and enjoy tea and cake at 4pm; now that's my idea of a perfect photographic day!
