Available Light

Available light in photography has slightly different meaning to different photographers. My interpretation is using whatever light is available, typically from a window. My house faces east/west so I get really good light twice a day and relatively decent available light anytime.

I typically use the available window light for shots of the two cats that have agreed to share living space with me and my wife. They have also agreed to be photographic subjects from time to time. Our cats have a large "tree" made from carpet that is at almost the perfect height for me to gets good pictures.

I'll start with a picture of a very consternated Zak. you can see how I've used the available light from the window to light up the side of Zak's face. It creates some nice shadows over the right side of Zak's face (left side of the picture) to create some drama. Being a photogenic cat does help, but the light adds much more to the picture. I find shutter speeds are a little lower where I do shoot and I'm happy I have built in shake reduction on the K10D. Shutter speed on this picture in particular was 1/20 and aperture at f/4.0


Here is another example with Bo (which I also used recently in another post about digital vs. film). This one was taken on the same tree but from a slightly different angle with me being about 45 degrees to the window. You can see there is more light on the face and I've created a different feel to the picture.



Available light is whatever you make of it. As a photographer paying attention to what light you have will have a dramatic effect on the quality of your finished product as there is only so much that you can do in Photoshop. It's best to get the best result you can right from the camera and then make slight tweaks after. Of course using available light means that we are at the mercy of what the circumstances are (weather, location of light source, etc) so make the best of what you have.