Feel the Light

A gas station from a time gone by, sadly no longer there.

Before you can master light, you must be able to see the light. You must walk, slowly, looking at how light shapes, forms, and defines what it hits. Do this every day, at various times of the day. Use your eyes, not your camera. Watch as the sun moves across the sky. See the effect each passing minute brings, dawn to dusk. Once you've done this, you've taken your first step to mastery. 

Many ask, what is the best time of the day to take pictures? The easy answer is 30 minutes before sunrise to two hours after sunrise and, two hours before sunset to 30 minutes after. These times are obvious; they are the infamous Golden and Blue hours of the day. But is that it? No, not at all. Any moment in the day is the best time to make a picture if you understand light.

I was fortunate to have studied under many masters who "encouraged" me to take "light walks" to open my eyes. As they said, a champion fighter does not go into the ring without first putting in countless hours of training. They jump rope, hit the heavy bag, and spend hours and hours on the punching bag. Training is done for one reason, to hone the necessary skills, so when the time comes to fight, the mind and body will respond as one. 

Photography is no different. Without learning how first to see, you are not going to win. 

The Gas Station

I saw this old structure months ago during a drive around my new city. Its beautiful 50s style awning immediately struck me, and I knew I had to make its portrait. I also knew it needed the right light, or it would be just a snapshot. So I waited, and I watched. I drove past this glorious beauty every chance I got to see how the light fell across its face. I knew it had to be late in the day for the sun to skim across the facade, but not too late, or there would be no light. Finally, the afternoon arrived that I knew in my gut would be the right day. 

Technically it was an easy photo to make. I used my Sony a7iii along with a 24mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens from the 60s with an adapter. I framed the photograph to emphasize the awning structure while keeping the buildings face in proper view. I didn't want to obscure any of the doors or windows with the awning's support beams. 

Once correctly framed, I set the exposure based first on the aperture, f/8-11, to ensure enough depth of field throughout the photo. Next, I manually selected my base ISO of 200 to provide the best quality possible. Because I used a tripod, the shutter speed was the least of my concern. 

With the technical aspects of the image done, it was just a matter of waiting for the light to kiss the building just right. 

Having a sky with clouds that day was the result of patience. I precisely knew what I wanted when I first saw the gas station, light, and sky. So nothing in the picture is luck, or random. 

In post-processing, I corrected the perspective of the building ever so slightly, so not to keystone. If I had a lens with proper architectural corrections, this could have been done at the time of exposure. But we work with all the tools we have, not the ones we wish we had. 

In the end, the final image is what I saw in my mind's eye weeks earlier because I followed the Artist's Way of Previsualization, Persistence, and Practice. 

I challenge you to make the first step and take a light walk of your own. And remember, if you think photography is hard, pick up a violin.