This post is a fairly brief one. I had a lot on this week and the whole Brexit train wreck thing has taken up most of my focus since yesterday. The subject is shooting into the light.

This weeks assignment - Photographing into the light.

Please post any photos, comment about anything or ask any questions about photography.- Also, treat this as a photography (or anything else for that matter) open thread.

Into the Light

When I was handed the family camera back in the late sixties I was given a set of instructions that were never to be deviated from. One of these instructions was wait until the sun comes out and always shoot with it sun behind you. The reasoning was understandable. Film was nowhere near as sensitive to light as today's sensors so more light was required. Also apertures in non professional cameras were usually single size and fairly small (for a large depth of field and simpler lens manufacture). In other words front lighting was considered optimal because it made the scene brighter. Fortunately things have moved on and even cheap cameras are now becoming capable of producing good images in low light conditions.

Lets take a brief look at what happens when back lighting as opposed to front lighting is used:

The results become much less predictable. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending upon who you ask. Many photographers want predictable repeatable results while others enjoy working with some random elements.

Lens flare is something that often happens when shooting into a light source. Many hate it with a passion while others like it so much that they add it artificially in post production. The real version is caused by light bouncing around inside the lens before hitting the sensor. Manufacturers tend to try to do what they can to stop lens flare - usually by means of special coatings on the glass. This technology does not come cheap though. I enjoy working with the quirks of my lenses and will often deliberately choose to work with ones that are prone to flare just to see what they make of a scene.

The primary function of lens hoods is to control lens flare. In the absence of a hood shielding with a free hand can work just as well. Flare is more of an issue with wideangle lenses than it is with telephoto ones because the former take in much more of a scene and are therefore much more likely to have a source of light either in the actual frame or very close.

Bokeh Blobs As far as I understand it bokeh is a term used to describe the out of focus area of an image. Throwing light sources out of focus turns them into larger blobs. Some people like this effect and others not so much. I'm agnostic - its good now and again but it is easy to overdo it. A larger aperture will generally produce bigger blobs. These blogs vary in shape depending upon the aperture mechanism - polygons and circles are the most common.

Silhouettes If an object is backlit against say, the sky, it is always much darker than the sky. This is why foreground objects usually appear black when photographed against a sunset. If the sun is behind the object (or person) the edges of the silhouette will often have a halo.

Obviously there is much more to backlighting than this and I've barely even scratched the surface here.

Assignments

Last Weeks Assignment - Boring

Photographs and comments

This Weeks Assignment - Into the light

The main light source should be more than 90 degrees from the camera. (90 degrees is side lighting).
Pointing the camera in the direction of the sun is an obvious example. There are many other possibilities though. Artificial lights are ideal. Town centers at dusk are good. Candle light also offers up interesting possibilities. Quick tip here though, make sure that the exposure on the camera is set to spot metering and that the reading is taken from the flame.

Where to Post Images

I'll put up a new thread tomorrow, around noon ET, specifically for the uploading of photos relating to the assignment. If you want to post them here and/or on tomorrow's thread that is fine. Also feel free to post any other images of anything on either today's or tomorrow's threads. The assignments are purely optional.

Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.

-George Eastman
This is an open thread so have at it. Post photos, questions, thoughts etc. - anything whatsoever to do with photography or anything at all for that matter.