Hi, it's Karen from the photography playground. Welcome back. Today we're going to talk about the quality and the direction of sunlight. Because your smartphone creates the best images with a lot of light, this is the light you're going to want to work with the most. But first, let me tell you something about shadows. There are two kinds.

We have the shadow on the subject itself. It's called own shadow, and the shadow that is created by the subject it's called the drop shadow. Shadows are a wonderful toy to play with in photography, they create an entire new world of return, present for a fleeting moment unless you capture them. By the quality of the light we don't mean whether it's good or bad light. The quality of the light describes the quality in terms of direct hard light or diffused soft light. On a bright sunny day, the light is direct and hard.

It creates deep dark shadows. The transition between light and shadow is abrupt and the contrast between light darker areas is large. on a cloudy day the light is diffused and soft. It creates light shadows are no shadows at all. The transition between light and shadow is gradually and the contrast between lighter and darker areas is small. We can also find the soft diffused light on a bright sunny day, but you'll have to look for it.

You know, wherever there's direct sunlight, it's likely there are larger areas with shadows as well. We call it open shadow. Look for areas that have shade to evenly illuminate your scene and create a small contrast. You can find these areas in the shadow of a building or in a doorway near a window and retreat. You get the point O lights versus direct or diffuse to have a place where they come from the direction of the light. The more hard and direct the light is, the more its direction shows in your photo.

When naming the direction of the light. It's always in relation to the subject and not you when the camera we distinguish front light, top light sidelight and backlight front light is when the subject faces the light. It comes from the direction of the camera. It's the light when the sun is behind you. it evenly illuminates the subject and there are no complicating shadows. It's an easy direction to work with because of that, but it can also become a little doe.

Front light can be beautiful when you make use of the golden hour. The golden hour is just after sunrise and just before sunset, the color of the light becomes a magical ray of yellow and orange stones. Having the sun at your back during golden hour can make the most simple things glow and give them a magical touch of light comes from above. It's the light the sun creates around midday. In general it doesn't create the most interesting light but it can create a clean feel to an image because of the short and recognizable shadows. And it also depends on where you're standing yourself.

Applied can work really well when you shoot from above. sidelight comes from either side of the subject It's the light when the sun is on your left or right in the morning or the afternoon. It's beautiful and interesting light to work with. It creates steps, contrast, texture, and vibrant colors. That light comes from behind the subject. It's the light in front of you facing the camera during the morning and the afternoon.

It's difficult to work with but it's very interesting and dramatic. When you learn to recognize the light and become experienced in working with it, you yourself will discover there is no good or bad light. You'll learn to make the light your helper in creating a mode, enhancing a contrast, emphasizing a detail hiding things in shadows etc. I will see you in the next lecture and until then happy photographing