Light & Space

Light is a fundamental element to photography; it interacts with space, affecting the way we perceive the subject. The way light falls upon the landscape can drastically change the atmosphere of a scene. Light draws our attention to the textures, colours, and forms of a space or landscape. Learning to work with the light enables us to achieve our vision, in art and photography. It takes time, but over the years one learns how light can vary so dramatically. Even on days which appear gloomy, there can be a good quality of light for photographs.​ Here we have light passing over the landscape, it’s just a matter of patience waiting for the light to illuminate the scene.

In the above image the raw power of nature is evident at these towering cliffs, home to thousands of seabirds. ​This image was made near dusk, which gives us a nice band of bright light at the peak of the cliffs, the sky darkening above. The dark to light transition of tone and the striations in the rocks, draw in the viewer to the centre of the scene. Although there is a lot happening in this image, it is still quite minimal in its composition. The quality of light is quite ethereal.​ With experience we begin to learn how subtle changes in lighting can drastically alter the mood of an image. We also begin to notice what might work well in black + white.

In this dramatic seascape, we can think of the sea and sky as negative space, a blank canvas. ​We then need to decide where the forms of the landscape will fit into this space. I’ve carefully selected two outcrops, the foreground and the distant cliffs, the softened sea creating a good separation between the foreground and the background. In doing this, the scene has been kept quite minimal, despite it being a large vista. ​A 10 second exposure adds a touch of drama to the clouds in 60mph winds!

These wonderfully gnarled trees growing out of the reeds are an almost eerie sight to behold, other-worldly. Finding a balanced composition can be tricky amidst visual chaos. Such scenes require a patient eye. Look for the flow of branches into one another. Seek the rhythm within nature. ​The light itself was quite flat, this suits the scene however, acting as a blank canvas and allowing the texture and form to really come to prominence.

Most people would probably assume that the subject here is the boat. ​Actually what caught my attention even more, is this wonderful cloud, which had nicely positioned itself in a very subtle manner, above the boat. ​For me, this image is all about the cloud, the boat just happens to be a nice foreground. The colour palette here is enriched further by the setting sun. This was shot on film, kodak portra 800 which is my favourite colour film which has a fabulous grain.

This seemingly busy scene in the forest when viewed in terms and light and space, is actually very simple. From a compositional point of view, the dark and light areas give the scene structure. Without the strong contrast between light and dark it would be a very flat scene. ​By learning to compose using light we are opening the door to wider world of compositional techniques. It can be tricky when photographing high contrast scenes such as this. It’s always best to use the camera in manual mode. And you should take your meter reading from the brightest part of the scene to prevent that area from being over exposed.​

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When I was in Kyoto, I visited Nanzen-ji Buddhist temple. I’d always wanted to visit since I saw this place on a BBC documentary. It was a dream come true for me. I was struck by the power of the zen gardens, how they seem to portray the entire universe in such a simple and profound way. A photograph could never capture the magic of these places, but I wanted to document it the best way I could. The strong shadows helped to create pleasing geometrical shapes.​ These simple compositions are quite bold due to the strong light casting dark shadows, which in turn create their own geometric forms, enhancing this space visually and aesthetically.

I hope you enjoyed these wee insights. If you'd like to dive deeper into these kind of subjects, do get in touch. It's amazing what we can cover in just a one hour zoom tutorial, such as my proven session - "The Art of Composition" or one of my other popular topics, available here.

"Going through Karl's photographs, one by one, hearing why he took them as he did, and why he selected those to compose the body of his work was an eye opening experience, a visual dissection revealing how to use composition as a tool to achieve such simple yet bold imagery." Javier Villar-Ruiz - Testimonial from his "The Art of Composition" tutorial.

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Best wishes

Karl.