Nikon® D3000: Digital Field Guide

Chapter 6. Working with Light

The most important factor in photography is light; without it, your camera is rendered useless. Whether the light is recorded to silver halide emulsion on a piece of film or to the CCD sensor on your D3000, you can't make a photograph without it.

Not only is light necessary to make an exposure, but it also has different qualities that can impact the outcome of your image. Light can be soft and diffuse, or it can be hard and directional. Light can also have an impact on the color of your images; different light sources emit light at different temperatures, which changes the color cast of the image.

The ability to control light is a crucial step toward being able to make images that look exactly how you want them to. In this chapter, I explain some of the different types of light and how to modify them to suit your needs.

Light, whether from a light bulb, the sun, or electronic flash, is required to make an exposure

Natural Light

Though it is by far the easiest type of light to find, natural light is sometimes the most difficult to work with because it comes from the sun, is often unpredictable, and can change from minute to minute. A lot of times I hear people say, "Wow, it's such a nice, sunny day; what a perfect day to take pictures," but unfortunately this is not often the case. A bright day when the sun is high in the sky presents many obstacles.

First, ...