Lights! Camera! Photograph!

Light. It drives away darkness. Without it we wouldn't be able to see anything. Imagine that: pictures without light. Who wants a picture filled with blackness? Anyone? Nope, didn't think you would. Light is what is received through the shutter and aperture opening of a camera to create a picture. The longer your shutter is open, the brighter your picture will be. The bigger your f-stop number is the smaller your aperture opening will be.

There are also different types of lighting depending on your position versus the sun's position when you take the picture. Front, back, side, rim, and spotlight lighting are all used to accentuate a certain aspect of a picture. Think of the sun as a dentist's overhead lamp. A dentist moves his/her lamp around so that the light catch's on and highlights different parts of your mouth. Now think of the sun in the same context, except move your body and camera position, correlating with the sun's position to help highlight and capture the aspect you want in your photograph.

Different choices of lighting can give dramatic dynamics to a picture. Always think about your picture's focal point and where the sun is in response. How is the angle of the sun going to affect the outlook of the picture? Are there distracting shadows in the frame? Do I need more light? Also, being aware of the time of day may answer the last question. Photographer's always say that the best light is in the first and last couple hours of the day. Cloudy days are sometimes even better if you are worried about the "right" lighting, because then there is no direct or "hard" light on your subject only "diffused" light. I know its hard to be motivated to take pictures on a cloudy day, but you never know! You might get a better picture than you thought.

Clouds, sun, dusk, or dawn, just don't get a dark one!