Playing with Light

Light can completely change the look of your pictures.  Learning to use it to your advantage is a valuable and powerfultool.  Light can be used for many different effects, such as silhouettes, high contrast, to tell the eye where to look, or even to show symbolism.

The picture on the right shows the silhouette of a dog.  This picture uses high contrast with the reflection of light on the floor and the darkness of the dog.  The long shadow also makes the picture more interesting.

Symbolically speaking light can represent many things.  The most common is hope.  Therefore, by using high contrast and light, you can add an abstract thought into your pictures, making them even more meaningful.  

Light can also represent the magic of life.  Without life, nothing would be able to thrive and live.  Light has shone down upon us since the beginning, and I mean the beginning.  So in a way, a place without light is a place without life.  

The picture on the left could either be a sunrise, or a sunset, and symbolically speaking, they both mean completely different things.  Can you tell whether this is a sunrise or a sunset???

The two following pictures were taken at slightly different angles, creating a completely different effect.  The top one shows the power of the sun in its full grandeur.  The rays of light reach far and wide with a mix of magenta and white/yellow streams of light. Being in the center and top of the picture, the effect of power is portrayed in this photo. I put this picture as my desktop background and for the first few days, simply looking at the picture was blinding!


The second photo, taken at a slightly lower angle, depicts a very different effect.  This time, the light goes more to show the magic of life in a plant.  It seems like light has managed to escape the bulb and is bringing life to all of the plants around.  What also is interesting is that the "container" of the light is really dark, in contrast to the inside, which is full of bright light.  This effect could mirror humans in a way.  On the outside, they look dull, but each person has their very own light inside of them.

 Finally, this picture uses soft focus to bring attention to the leaves and what is interesting is that only half of the leaves are in the light, and the other half hides in the shadows.  The tips of the leaves appear to be dipped in bronze.  If you think about it, the leaves can look like paint brushes.  Very high contrast occurs on the uppermost right leaf.  It itself is nearly white, almost glowing, and the tip of the leaf and its background are really dark in comparison.  High contrast usually brings something more to your pictures, making them way more interesting to look at.