Environmental Lighting

       Natural light is a beautiful thing. The problem is it usually doesn't cooperate with us as photographers. So how can we use that harsh noon-day sunlight to make amazing pictures without hauling a studio's amount of gear around with us? Its quite simple really, use what's there already.

Lets break down this image to see what makes it tick.

This images was taken at about 11:46am so pretty close to noon time.

The light traveled in through the spaces between the columns to give that harsh directional light that creates those dramatic shadows.

The light then bounces off the white concrete which gives a fill to the shadows giving what would have been a very contrasty image good shadow detail.

The sun back lighting the young lady's hair makes it stand out from the shadow of the pillar. The light bouncing off the concrete fills in her face so it doesn't get lost in the shadows.

So how many studio lights did we eliminate with just the environment?

1. The key light = The sun coming from behind the subject creating a very specular source.
2. The fill light = Sunlight reflecting off the neutral concrete creating a fill for the shadows.
3. The kicker (hair light) = Once again the sunlight reflecting off the subjects brown hair making it stand out against the shadow side of the pillar.
4. Background Light = Since there were no clouds to diffuse the sun at the time the image was captured, the light was strong enough to fill in the rest of the area. I shot this image in 14 bit NEF (RAW) to capture the maximum amount of detail possible. 

What's the difference between 12 and 14 bit capture you ask?

Well in 12 bit Raw capture the camera captures 4096 tones per color channel or 68.7 billion different colors.
While 14 bit captures 16,384 tones per color channel or 4.4 TRILLION colors. 14bit also allows for more information to be captured in the highlights and shadows which prevents detail being lost and the infamous "blinkies."
Oh yeah lets not forget JPEG which is 8bit and only captures 256 tones per channel or roughly 16.8 million colors.

Beautiful light is everywhere, you just have to notice it!

Keep on Shootin!