Aug Tutorial question:

Erin Aumack posted this question in our comments and I thought I’d share it, along with my answer, in case any of our readers missed it and may have the same question:

Can natural light also be outdoors? Or is this a challenge for indoor photos?

Here’s my answer:

I would consider natural light outdoors as daylight (not direct sunlight) as discussed in the June tutorial.  For this tutorial, I’d like to see you work on using indoor natural lighting. 

Thanks for your queston, Erin – can’t wait to see your results!  I’ll be back with our first August submission soon!

Cheers!

August Tutorial – Natural/Available Light

We’ve looked at both daylight/sunlight and artificial light.  This month, I’d like to discuss natural light.

Natural light  is sometime referred to as available light.  When I mention available light, I am referring to all types of lighting that occur naturally in a scene (with the exception of direct sunlight).  Preferred by many photographers, it is free and produces near true-to-life colour and excellent detail. 

When one mentions natural light, most people will generally think of light from a large window, such as in the following photos.

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/4.5, 1/40 sec., ISO 200

Taken with Nikon D90 at f/1.8, 1/60 sec., ISO 200

However, it is not always necessary to have a large window, although it certainly helps!  Consider the following photo:

Taken with Nikon D90 at f/1.8, 1/60 sec., ISO 200

The only available light was from an average sized kitchen window.  Fortunately, directly across from the window was a stainless steel refridgerator, which acted as a natural reflector!

Of course, this is not always the case.   You may have to use your own reflector, either purchased or handmade, and position it opposite your light source to reflect onto your subject.

Sometimes, it is necessary to move closer to the light source, as I have below.  (Granted, this handsome little fellow graces my kitchen window all the time…)  You’ll notice that I’ve opened my aperture wide to f/1.8 to overcompensate from the backlighting from the window light.

Taken with Nikon D90 at f/1.8, 1/640 sec., ISO 200.

 Sometimes, your available light will not come from a window, but a door!  Our french doors leading out to our deck provide perfect lighting for photographing my layouts, cards and projects.  You could also use patio doors, garage doors, etc…

Taken with Nikon D300s at f/1.8, 1/2500 sec., ISO 500

You may have noticed that almost all of the photos shown here, with the exception of the first one, were shot with an aperture of f/1.8.  Because using existing light sometimes results in low-light situations, your best bet for capturing a properly exposed photo is to use a faster lens, such as a f/1.8 or f/1.4.  If you don’t have a fast lens, don’t despair!  You can see that it is possible to achieve a properly exposed image using a smaller aperture (remember:  larger f/stop number (i.e. f/4.5) = small aperture…).  However, prepare to adjust your ISO and shutter speeds to allow more light into your camera.  If your shutter speeds are too slow, use a tripod to avoid camera shake.

Having said that, you’ll notice that in the last photo, my shutter speed is very fast to counter balance the wide-open aperture.  I could have slowed the shutter speed down and used a smaller aperture, without having to use a tripod, but I wanted a very shallow depth of field for this image.  Notice that the leaf and one petal is in focus, but the remainder of the image is blurred?  This is the beauty of shooting in manual mode - you can manipulate your results to suit your needs!

So grab your camera, find a subject (preferably willing!) and hunt down some available light for this assignment!

Your August assignment:

Using the August tutorial as a guide, photograph a subject or object in natural/available light.  Remember to play with reflectors to see the effect they have on your lighting.  Have fun and experiment!!  As always, if you have any questions, please leave me a comment on this post, or email me.

Deadline:  11:59 pm EST, August 31st, 2010

Please submit your photo, using our submission form only, for a chance to be entered into our draw to win an awesome prize.  A randomly chosen entry will be drawn after the deadline.  Please click HERE to review the rules regarding this draw BEFORE submitting.  Please note – submissions that are not relative to the tutorial and/or do not abide by these rules will not be posted on the blog, or entered into the draw.  PLEASE remember that your photos should be sized to 72dpi, and at least 500 pixels wide.  Don’t forget to  include your camera settings, including camera used, f/stop, aperture and ISO for your image in the Comments section of the submisson form!  Submissions that do not include this info may not be posted on the blog.

This month’s sponsor is  SEI!  Check out this sweet prize pack from their Moravia line!

August 2010 Prize Pack by SEI

Thanks for playing along this month – Happy Clicking!

July winner announced!

Thanks to our readers who shared their photos with us this month!

I’m using a new method of choosing a winner – still using www.randomizer.org, but in a different format.  So our winner this month is:

List Randomizer

There were 5 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Kim Gowdy, AB
2. Serena Gelaman, AB
3. Stephanie Schan, ON
4. Michelle Kuijer, ON
5. Michelle Kuijer, ON

Timestamp: 2010-08-06 02:31:49 UTC

Congratulations, Kim!  Your prize pack will be mailed to the address on your submission form shortly!

Stay tuned for our August tutorial – coming soon!

I’m back!!

With the rest of our July submissions!

Michelle Kuijer, of ON, sent in two submissions this month.  In her first submission, she used the existing spotlight and added additional light from her external flash.

Taken with Canon Rebel XS at f/4, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

For you Rush fans (my hubby included!), those drums are the originals played by the legendary Neil Peart for his first few years on tour.  I love her son’s shirt, which reads, “Got Peart?”

Michelle’s other photo uses simply her on-camera flash:

Taken with Canon Rebel XS at f/5.6, 1/16 sec., ISO 400

Love the framing!  Thanks for sharing, Michelle!

Our last submission this month comes from Serena Gedlaman, of AB.  Serena writes, of her lighting: “I used my on-camera flash, but turned on every available light source and set up some extra lamps that I could direct toward my daughter from her left side.”

Taken with Canon Rebel T2i at f/4.5, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

Great job, Serena - and what a happy expression you’ve captured!  Thanks for your submission.

I’ll announce a winner tomorrow – and be sure to watch for a new tutorial on combination lighting!

Cheers,