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It Isn’t Magic, It’s Energy brings you special guest photographer and YouTuber Marcos Alberca to talk about light at different times of the day and its importance in photography. Don’t miss it!ts.
It Isn’t Magic, It’s Energy and its small experiments are back so that you can better understand how energy works. You can follow them in Stories on our Instagram profile @EndesaClientes.
Today’s experiment tells us about light and how to modulate it so that it appears differently in our photos. The photographer and YouTuber Marcos Alberca tells us what the light is like at every moment of the day and how we need to handle our camera to obtain the best results.
It Isn’t Magic, It’s Energy: night photography in space by Marcos Alberca
Light in photography is essential, but we don’t always have control over it. If we are working outside of a studio and using natural light as our light source, the exterior is much more difficult to control, although if we know how to adapt to it the results can be great.
Another important factor when taking photos is whether we want to take our photos during the day or at night. Light appears differently on the objects on which it is reflected, not only at different times of a day, but also in the different seasons of the year.
In summer, the sun at its highest point is at a great height, and the arc that it travels during the summer days is very high, meaning the shadows that are produced are small, the light falls vertically on the landscapes and objects and generates fewer shadows and our photographs are more clipped, that is, the elements that make them up have fewer contrasts between them.
In winter, however, having a smaller arc, the shadows are more horizontal and elongated, which makes the landscapes more interesting and produces more attractive plays of light.
Night photography is perhaps one of the most spectacular photographic disciplines: photos takes from after sunset until before dawn. Due to the paucity of the light we have, we need to expose for a longer time, that is, long exposure.
In this discipline, we must understand the 3 elements that affect the exposure of our photos: the aperture of the diaphragm (which limits the ray of light that penetrates the camera), exposure time (the shutter is a curtain that opens at the moment you take the shot) and ISO (ISO is nothing more than the sensitivity of the sensor when capturing light) and the relationship between the 3 values.
If you understand and control these three elements you can have the best configuration to take night photos, now go and practice!
Now you know: it Isn’t Magic, It's Energy!
Description of the experiment
Try going out to take your pictures one night. You will see that combining and modifying these three parameters (aperture, exposure time and sensitivity) you will obtain different results.
Materials
- A camera
- A tripod or any firm support for your camera
- A mobile phone
Process
You can go out to photograph elements of nature or your city. Or maybe take someone along who can act as a model. Try to locate lights to capture in contrast and then compare the results.
You can use the torch on your mobile to illuminate and thus create your contrasts. You can also opt for a light projector, as proposed by Mr Zeta in his experiment.
If what you want is to photograph the night sky, we offer you the following tips:
Choose a place well outside the city, free of light pollution.
Put your camera in manual mode, turn off the image stabiliser, select RAW format and use a remote shutter if you have one (set a delay of 3 seconds). Set a high sensitivity (try between 2,000 and 4,000 ISO), a wide aperture (you can toggle between f/2 or f/3.5) and a shutter speed of about 20 seconds.
Now all you have to do is fix your camera on one point with the desired framing. You can choose a starry sky or combine part of the sky with a landscape.
Just click and check the result. You can play with the three parameters that we have mentioned to see the different results. In this case, science places itself at the disposal of your talent to get the most spectacular images of nature. It Isn’t Magic, It's Energy.
Show us your best photos and follow our Instagram profile , where you will find more It Isn’t Magic, It's Energy experiments . We will be expecting you!
*The photos used have been provided by their author: Marcos Alberca.
