What's the Best Light? What's my Favorite Light?

Have you ever looked at the effects of light. I mean REALLY looked at the effects of light. Many photographers are always looking at light, everywhere they go. My "favorite" light really depends on what I am trying to convey and what my subject is. This page could take me years to write, listing why every light is my favorite light. Indeed, I plan on updating this page periodically as I have time.

But lets start with some basics. As I am writing this page, immediately the following types of light come to mind:

• Sunrise
• Sunset
• The last couple hours before Sunset
• The first couple hours after Sunrise
• Noon
• Shade at Noon
• Shade either side of noon
• Shade at Sunrise or Sunset
• Winter Noon
• Summer Noon
• Spring and Fall Noon
• Candlelight
• Cool white Fluorescent
• Warm white Fluorescent
• Daylight Fluorescent
• Household incadescent
• Photo quality incadescent
• Halogen
• Popup-Flash on a camera
• "Real" flash on a camera
• Flash on a flash bracket
• Studio Flash
• Reflected light (all different colours/colors, all different angles)
• Spot light
• Sunlight on a misty day
• Flashlight/Lighthouse light on a foggy night
• Rainbow
• Moonlight
• Campfire light
• Underwater light (different depths, further differences)
• Flash light under water
• Rim light
• Back Light
• Light Through (a special form of Back Light)
• double (or quad) 45 degree angle lights for coping flat objects
• Tented light (for reflective objects like gold rings)

Oh, and I could go on, but I'm going to stop and start to talk about some of these. Let me talk in general terms. Yes there are lots of exceptions to these comments, but if you are just getting started, these comments should give you an excellent starting point.

The last couple hours before Sunset.

If I really had to pick one favorite, I would have to pick the light that is in the last couple hours before Sunset. First because it has a soft "glow" about it. Second because it is a "warm" color - a lot of the blue is filtered out so that it is more yellow/orange than other times of day. People's faces look more colorful and alive, the shadows aren't as harsh. Third, you don't get harsh shadows under people's eyes. But wait! The light is more orange/red when the air is filled with particulate material ie farmers have been out working during the day kicking up dust, God was spewing dust from a volcano or what have you. You can get the same type of light after the sunrise, but because of farming and other human activity, you tend to get more particulate matter in the air at the end of the day than at the beginning of the day.

So what about this "2 hours". How accurate is it. To be completely honest, it is completely inaccurate. Lets start by looking at extremes. If you go North or South enough you may find that you get this light the "last 2 months before sunset" and the last 2 times I was on the equator, this light lasted somewhere between 45 seconds and a few minutes (clear air, near ocean.) On the other hand, if you are in a desert with brown or reddish sand, even though you are near the equator, the light will last longer because the light reflected off the sand has been colored. But in general, all other factors equal, the closer you are to the equator and the closer you are to the longest day, the shorter time this light will last  - down to seconds beause the sun's arc is high, and the further North or South you are and the closer you are to the shortest day, the longer this lovely light will last, this time because the sun's arc in the sky is lower.

If this is not making sense to you. take a globe in your hands, now imagine that the air is as thick as your finger. When the sun is directly above - how much air/dust does it go through? Now imagine it directly west of your finger - look at how soon it is going through, say 3 times the thickness of your finger. Now, imagine the Earth tilted so the Sun is south and west - now see how soon it is going through the same 3 times the thickness of your finger. You will see the Earth is going to turn much more before the Sun is hidden by the Earth. That is why this golden light lasts longer - a simplistic explanation, but good enough for this discussion.

Why before Sunset and not after Sunrise then?

Well, as mentioned above, after Sunrise can be just the same, but because human activities including farming kick up dust into the air, "after sunrise" light tends to get blue and clear much quicker. But it all depends on the dust in the air. If you are an early riser (I am not) you may find Sunrise and "after Sunrise" light to be better - simply because you are awake! But if you are an early riser and you live up as North as I do or later - you can get the "before sunset" light fairly early in the day in the fall and winter.

While I'm at it, I've done some photography by campfire and candlelight. It requires very fast film and usually a tripod, and my subjects have to sit still. But the results are wonderful..

Noon:

So how bad is noon light. Well, let me again suggest that the closer you are to the equator, the fewer shots are going to be excellent under Noon (right up above) light, and the further you are awy from the equator, or the closer you are to your longest day of the year the less a problem noon light is. (On the equator - basically every noon is going to be the same from this perspective.) Where Sunset Noon light is red and "glows", Noon light is blue and harsh. Most photographers find that noon light just doesn't allow them to get very many pictures they are happy with. But keep your eyes open (unless you are taking a nap so you can stay up for the Sunset light) there are some pictures that are wonderful under noon light.

Shade:

Here's a tough one. Shade is nice because it evens out the light, lowers the contrast so your film can record detail throughout. But Shade is very blue - much more so than noon light. The solution? Well, there are a few. One is to use gold reflectors to "warm" up the light, another is to use your camera flash (which has noon blue levels) to bring the color down from shade blue to a warmer color. But the one I use the most is using a slightly orange colored filter - called a "warming" filter. There are several different grades ranging from a slight change to a large change. I use a Tiffen 812, Hogen 81A, 81B and 81C's (multicoated) but there are others that are nearly as good too. Or maybe better to say - there are others so you can adjust the effect. If you are using a digital camera, you may find that the best solution is no filter, rather do an appropriate white balance to lower the blues.

Candlelight:

What a "warm cozy" look Candlelight gives to pictures. I don't use this often, but the red color is wonderful. To soften the reddish and bring out the other colors your eyes see and your brain preceives, adding a blue filter, or better yet, using a film designed for tungsten lights, or doing a full or partial white balance on your digital camera to bring back some of the blues.

If you want my comments on one of the other lights, let me know and I will prioritize my updating of this page based on your requests.