Dec 4, 20193 min read

Low Light with Jamye Denson

I started my first 365 project in January of 2018. So right in the middle of winter I committed to daily shooting. The kids were in school, and the sun set at 2:30pm (joking. kind of.) So began my love affair with low light and really embracing the shadows. I really struggled the first week or so, but as the days went on I really fell in love with the process. One way I really helped train myself to search for the light, was to turn off the lights. Literally. I started refusing to use the lights in the house. I opened all the windows, took down the curtains, and let that sunshine in. When I started focusing on the light that I could find, or the ambient light, I really learned how to look for it.

self portrait///50mm, f/2.5, 1/200, ISO 125

LOW LIGHT DOES NOT EQUAL NO LIGHT

Low light does not equal NO light. I captured this image of my kids playing in the snow in February 2018, and that’s really when things had started to click for me. It was almost pitch black outside when it started snowing and they wanted to go out. There was only a single porch light on, and they went straight to it. I exposed for my sons face in this shot.

porch light to camera right///50mm, f/2.2, 1/160, ISO 1250

FIND THE LIGHT

I’ve learned to seek out the little slivers of light that make it through the cracks. I’m always searching for the light, even as it changes during the day, and as the seasons change. I’ve found that I really prefer the winter sun. I just happened upon this corner of amazing light one day while doing laundry. I’d never noticed it before, and there wasn’t a lot of it, but we took advantage. I tucked her into the corner and shot a couple of frames; within 30 minutes the sun had moved and it was gone.

window opposite subject///35mm, f/2.8, 1/200, ISO 320

PUSH THE SHADOWS

I love pushing the shadows to the limits without clipping the blacks. In the image below, my son was playing in a spot of really (REALLY!) bright sun. I used to call these hot spots, I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about, but now... that’s the spots I search for. My son happened to find this one first and sat down to play. I had to up my shutter speed and my aperture because the highlights were to bright.

window to camera left///35mm, f/3.2, 1/320, ISO 160

EXPOSE FOR THE HIGHLIGHTS

I always aim to expose for the brightest part of my subject, this prevents me from losing any details. You’d really be surprised how intense the sun is in some places. Especially when everything around it is in shadows. I wanted to capture a high contrast portrait of my son in his Halloween costume, so I waited for the afternoon sun, which is the strongest, and sat him right beside the window.

window to camera left///35mm, f/2.5, 1/1000, ISO 100

SPEAKING OF WINDOWS...

They will become your best friend. There’s a million and one different ways to use window light. I love partially closing the curtains and just placing the subject (or part of a subject) in the sliver of light. Or placing your subject opposite a window, the effects can be completely different. Have fun with it all, and experiment.

From left to right: (1) in front of window, (2) window behind camera right, (3) shooting into window at sunrise, (4) window to camera left

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT

Another really fun element to play around with is artificial light. I do this every so often, especially once the sun has gone down and I still refuse to turn on the lights. I also like how it adds to the stories I tell.