2014 Challenge, Week 2: LIGHTING

Welcome to week 2 of the 2014 challenge! As Trevor noted last week, each of the posts he writes will have something to do with landscape photography. This extra focus on a specific genre will help us focus on a single theme, and improve in that area. Along those lines, you can expect each of my posts for the challenge this year to focus on a technical aspect of photography. For this post, lets focus on LIGHTING.

There are a few ways you could approach this theme. One way would be to look for a scene with interesting natural light. Perhaps ambient light is focused on part of the scene, or sunlight is highlighting something in the frame.

“Argentina Light” by Doug Wheller

Another approach would be to use backlighting. You can accomplish this by using artificial or natural lighting. If you are shooting on a sunny day, you can use the sun as a backlight.

“Blossom In The Sun” by Jeremy Brooks

“Beneath the leaf” by Coby Bidwell

If you have access to a flash for your camera, or access to some lighting equipment, things can really start to get interesting. Using artificial light sources allows you to control exactly where the light falls in the scene. This can really help emphasize the subject and convey the feeling you are going for.

“April 14th 2008 – Daddy Rocks” by Stephen Poff

“Photo Booth – Part III” by Matthias Weinberger

This is also a great chance to work on portraits. Grab a flash and a couple of friends, and spend some time experimenting with different lighting scenarios.

“Ringflash Bride” by Stuart Crawford

“A Portrait In Darkness” by Sean McGrath

If you would like to learn more about how to light a scene, The Strobist website is a great resource. It is probably worth spending some time on that site before diving into this weeks challenge.

We all want to see your best shot! So, share your single submission with us all on at least one of our social media groups at Google+, Facebook, or Flickr.