About Lesson
- Go outside on a sunny day.
- Which direction is your light source (in this case, the sun) shining from? Can you find shadows that indicate the direction the sun is shining? (Right now, looking out my window, the trees’ shadows are pointing almost directly due north due to it being almost the winter solstice.)
- Choose a subject (for example, a tree, flower, or statue) that you can walk all of the way around. (A person will work in a pinch.)
- Take four photographs of your subject from four different sides: 1 photograph with the light from behind you and directly on the subject, 1 photograph with the light on your left, 1 photograph with the light on your right, and 1 photograph with the light directly in front of you and directly behind your subject.
- Look at your photographs. Can you see how the direction of the light affects your photographs? Which direction of light works best in this situation?
- You may wish to repeat this exercise on a few different subjects to get a better understanding of how the direction of light affects your photographs.