Question

1. Why do we often miss the effect of the light in our photograph?

2. When should you consider the light in a photograph?
3. How do elements in the scene affect the lighting of a picture? Give an example of this.
4. Why is seeing the light in our pictures important?
5. What do you think is the most challenging aspect of working with light in photography? What can you do to reduce this challenge?

Answer 1

1. Use gridlines to balance your shot.

One of the easiest and best ways to improve your mobile photos is to turn on the camera's gridlines. That superimposes a series of lines on the screen of your smartphone's camera that are based on the "rule of thirds" — a photographic composition principle that says an image should be broken down into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, so you have nine parts in total.

According to this theory, if you place points of interest in these intersections or along the lines, your photo will be more balanced, level, and allow viewers to interact with it more naturally.

2. Set your camera's focus.

Today's phone cameras automatically focus on the foreground of your frame, but not every picture you take on your phone has an obvious subject. To adjust where you want your camera lens to focus, open your camera app and tap the screen where you want to sharpen the view.

If you're taking a photo of something in motion, for example, it can be difficult for your camera to follow this subject and refocus as needed. Tap the screen to correct your phone camera's focus just before snapping the picture to ensure the moving subject has as much focus as possible. A square or circular icon should then appear on your camera screen, shifting the focus of your shot to all of the content inside that icon.

3. Focus on one subject.

Many of the best photos include just one, interesting subject. So when taking a picture of one, spend some extra time setting up the shot. Some professional photographers say that the subject shouldn't fill the entire frame, and that two-thirds of the photo should be negative space — that helps the subject stand out even more.

But be sure you tap the screen of your smartphone to focus the camera on your subject — that'll help to ensure that it's focused and the lighting is optimized.

Pro Tip: Once you've taken your photo, you can use filters and apps to make the subject even more vivid, or to crop it to frame the subject correctly. The brightness, contrast, and saturation of the photo can also be adjusted accordingly — all from your phone.

4. Embrace negative space.

"Negative space" simply refers to the areas around and between the subjects of an image — and it can take a photo from "good" to "great."

When you include a lot of empty space in a photo, your subject will stand out more and evoke a stronger reaction from your viewer

5. Find different perspectives.

Taking photos from a unique, unexpected angle can make them more memorable — it tends to create an illusion of depth or height with the subjects. It also makes the image stand out, since most mobile photos are taken either straight -on or from a bird's eye view.

Try taking a photo directly upward and playing with the sky as negative space, like in the first photo below. Or, you can try taking it at a slight downward

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

Why do we often miss the effect of the light in our photograph?

We miss the effect of the light in our photograph because we don’t often think about minuscule reflections in the light and how they may effect the photo.

When should you consider the light in a photograph?

Light should always be considered when taking a photo, and a good photographer should even think of ways to light a subject creatively.

How do elements in the scene affect the lighting of a picture? Give an example of this.

Elements of a scene can reflect of get in the way of the lighting for a picture. For example, if you want light to be reflected onto someone, you can make them get close to a part of the scenery that is white or even mirroring. If you’re taking a picture of a subject under a tree, the leaves can get in the way of sunlight and thereby affect the light seen in a photograph.

Why is seeing the light in our pictures important?

Seeing light in photos is important because all that a camera does is absorb reflecting light. Also, light alone can affect the subject of a photo in several different ways, and light can give off a long range of brightness and have different hues to it depending on what it’s reflecting off of.

What do you think is the most challenging aspect of working with light in photography? What can you do to reduce this challenge?

I think the most challenging aspect of light in photography is really just deciding what you want to do with the light of a photo. To help figure out the light in a photo, you could use color theory to decide what color object you want to use to reflect light onto your subject, or you could just preview your subject to decide what surfaces you want illuminated and it what ways you want to execute that.