2. Front, Back And Side-Lighting.

Nothing affects the amount of contrast in your picture more, than the direction and the quality of your lighting. The difference between dark and light areas plays not the least role in affecting the tonal range, and combined with shape it determines form.

The contrast is higher, the harsher is the light
quality, and vice-versa. You can use the lighting direction in order to suppress or emphasize your subject's form.

a) Aimed at your subject, as in this photo, front-lighting, which is the light behind your camera, the built-in electronic flash, or any other artificial or natural light source, or sometimes even both of them at once, allows for a flattened subject appearance, where the details are brought out with minimal texture. Strong and harsh front lighting flattened the appearance of this subject on a side of the building. I used Kodachrome 64 film, a Bogen tripod, Metz Flash set at 10 feet away from the subject, wide angle lens f = 28 - 70 mm set at the apperture of 8.5 at 1/15 of a second shutter speed to take the photo above.

b) Side-lighting, on the other hand, allows for the
strongest three-dimensional subject appearance. Hence, it tends
to emphasize shape and bring out maximum texture and detail in
your subject, it is used when the depth in your scene/subject needs to be revealed. To photograph these Holiday baloons, I used the same film, a Bogen tripod to support heavy Tamron telephoto zoom lens set at f.2 allowing for the same apperture at 1/125 of a second speed , Metz Flash set at 50 feet away from the subject to make this photo possible.

c) Back-lighting is when you are shooting against the light, or in other words, when your subject is lit from behind. Creating high contrast, while reducing details, back-lighting simplifies the form of your subject, and is often used for the halo special effect too, if its volume is stronger than the front-lighting. It is important to avoid looking directly into a bright light source through your camera viewfinder, it may permanently damage your
eyes. This image was created at the full moon night. I had to tripple-expose the same frame of film without advancing it. Using a slow Kodachrome film, I set my wide angle zoom lens f = 28 - 70 mm at the apperture of 5.6 at 1/8 of a second speed, shot the full moon positioning it in the upper left corner of a frame, then turned my camera upside down and pressed down the film rewind botton while cocking the release, photographed the rider, then turned my camera upside down and pressed down the film rewind botton while cocking the release again and shot the last exposure on the same frame of film.

Early morning light is fenomenal. If you like to get up when the birds are singing, you will enjoy a session at dawn and will be rewarded with marvelous pictures. This soft light effect was instrumental to make this image possible using Kodachrome slow speed film, wide angle lens f = 28 - 70 mm was set at the apperture of 5.6 at 1/60 of a second camera speed.

Unless your subject is in motion, you can always alter your viewpoint, in order to utilize available lighting to its highest photographic potential. Though remember, that altering your viewpoint in relation to the subject, will not change the way in which it is lit by the light source, unless the light source itself is moved, it allows you to visualize how much of the shadowed and lit areas you can see.

Avoid flare coming through the camera lens, by either altering your viewpoint, or shading your lens with your hand or other object (also, be careful not to include it in your picture). Flare is often caused by the side or back situated light source, and usually is damaging to the picture's appearance, nevertheless and as anything else, it could be used to your advantage too, when it brings a different mood and atmosphere into otherwise boring scene. To make this photo of marathonmen I employed a 35 mm camera with the wide angle lens set at 70 mm at the apperture of 3.5 at 1/125 of a second speed. You can see how a ray of light mercifully zooms some of the runners who are behind of those who are rewarded with shade for being forerunners. Thus employing light for your advantage is helpful in making a final decision in where your location should be in relation to the main source of light and should be done in advance, before your shooting session begins.

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