One of the ways that you can excel in your photography skills is to study what others have done.
Sometimes just perusing some professionals is helpful to gain some inspiration and to study good photography. (I love to just peruse https://www.flickr.com/ to find some inspiration sometimes!)
Start by asking some technical questions:
- What kind of light is it? – Hard or soft? (For a full explanation of hard and soft light, click this link: https://www.digitalartteacher.com/blog/using-natural-light/)
- Where is the light coming from? – Front? Side? Back? Overhead? Below? Is it coming from multiple directions?
- Is there a catchlight? (If you are taking a picture of a person, that would be the light that reflects in their eyes)
- What do you think the aperture size is? – is it a shallow or deep depth of field? (For an extensive unit on aperture, click this link: https://www.digitalartteacher.com/product/exposure-how-to-draw-with-light/
- What time of day might it be? Sunset? Noon? Is it cloudy? Sunny? – This will effect how the light falls on the subject.
After you have answered these questions, you can get an idea for the conditions in which the photographer was taking the image.
The challenge this week is to see if you can recreate an image from an image you admire with the same light. Note that you will not likely get it to look exactly the same, but by getting an idea for how that photographer used light in the image, you can learn how to take better pictures!
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