What is available light? 9The early-morning light fi ltering through the trees in this apple orchard provides the fi rst ingredient for a successful
photograph. The second ingredient is simply how that light is used. It’s coming in from the left side. This side lighting
not only illuminates the trees, but casts the marvelous shadows across the ground and the mottled pattern on the
worker’s face and arm. The third ingredient is the positioning of the subject and the ladders. No setup or posing was
done; the photograph is totally spontaneous and candid. The light provides mood and depth; the subjects add com-
position and supplement the depth. © 2006 Barry Staver.
images. To gain some understanding about light, let’s get some
scientifi c stuff out of the way fi rst. As you know, the earth’s
complete rotation every 24 hours provides us with day and night.
Our planet, with its slightly tilted axis, revolves around the sun
every 365 days producing not only seasons, but also lengths of
day and night. That is where those long, lazy days of summer
come from, as well as winter’s shorter days. It’s also why the
far northern latitudes receive almost total daylight in summer
and near-complete darkness in winter.
Knowledge of atmospheric conditions is essential to your under-
standing of light and the Golden Hour. Did you know that air
pollution from industrial sites, automobiles, forest fi res, and
even volcanic activity affect the quality of light? Particulates in
the air produced by these sources diffuse and scatter light rays.
The haze in a Los Angeles Basin sunset produces a different
quality of light than does the same sunset taken on a remote