Let there be light

What is photography?

Photography is a conversion of a 3D subject into 2D, to do so, we shall require light to expose silver or colour film through an optic to record the compressed image on a 2D paper.  We can change the subject film to photo sensor, photographic paper to LCD screen, the whole process has not changed. This leads the discussion to the most difficult subject of photography - Light.

Learning about photo taking has become more and more complicated. Earlier I covered the colour wheel, now, you have light. You may be surprised that photographer can see many different kinds of light.

- direct vs indirect - sunny vs cloudy, noon sun vs evening sun
- diffused vs harsh - hard shadow or soft shadow.

Then there are colour temperature of the light, or if you are too overwhelmed, you might just convert everything into black and white; but wait a moment.. black and white is about...? Shapes and brightness. When will this ever end!? Never, because there are innumerable combinations which make photo taking very involving as you know there are always a better way to do it.

Ansel Adam made a similar picture in black and white with such great tonality that I almost could imagine the colour of the subject. I am no way to even come close to the ability to convert 3D subject into 2D like Ansel Adam. He is the sun in heaven, I am still a grain of sand on the surface of earth.

Apart from being inspired by Ansel Adam, the timing of the sun is about mid morning, the sun is up and the shadow is strong. The small tree was illuminated from the side, gave the 3D feeling of the small tree trunk. The illuminated tree is in front of the totally dark background, therefore the subject is very well separated from the rest, the illumination of the sun enhanced this separation further. The camera is ... not so important, if you can see the image, you can get it.

Now about this photo in depth:

- Simplicity - there is only one colour
- Brightness Contrast - bright vs dark subject
- Colour Contrast - light illuminated green vs darker green colour
- Composition - the subject is off centre, there are other trees to maintain balance. If you squint your eyes, you can also see three major bands of colour across the whole picture , these three bands segregate the picture into almost three equal parts horizontally.

Voila!