Nikon® D5000 Digital Field Guide

Chapter 6. Working with Light

In This Chapter

• Natural light

• D5000 flash basics

• Nikon Creative Lighting System basics

• Using the built-in Speedlight

• Studio strobes

• Continuous lighting

• Light modifiers

The most important factor in photography is light; without it, your camera is rendered useless. You need light to make the exposure that results in an image. Whether the light is recorded to silver halide emulsion on a piece of film or to the CMOS sensor on your D5000, 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 colorcast of the image.

When there is not enough light to capture the image you're after, or when the available light isn't suitable for your needs, you can employ alternative sources of light, such as flash, to achieve the effect you're after.

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.

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, it is often unpredictable, and can change from ...