The use of light in a photograph can be the deciding
factor of whether that picture will be spectacular
or terrible. When you use your camera to
automatically chose aperture and shutter speed, what
your camera is actually doing is using the built in
light meter and measuring how much light is being
reflected to the camera.
But that doesn't mean that's all there is to it.
You
should also think about the angle of the light entering the frame, what kind
of shadows you want, and whether you want to use fill-in-flash (using flash
to light the subject if you have a really bright background). If you
are shooting at night you can create all sorts of cool effects like lights
in motion, pictures with moonlight, or silhouettes like the one shown here.
The following are just some examples of all the possibilities.
The angle
of light should be taken into careful consideration whenever you feel
like you want to create a specific effect.
Shadows can be very powerful when cast over half of
someone's face. In this photo on the left the
light is striking the statue's face from the rear
right of the camera and this adds more depth to the
picture. It also adds more coloring because if
front-lighting was used his face would likely be
over exposed, and if back-lighting was used his face
would just be black like a silhouette.
The effect of
rays of light indoors and outdoors. can be very spectacular. A
brilliant part of some great photographs is the ability to see actual rays
of light. Whether it be in the setting of a brilliant sunset, light
pouring through a window or from artificial lights it can look very
impressive. Usually the only way to obtain something like this is a
narrow aperture (high f/stop) and a very slow
shutter speed.
Silhouettes are another interesting example of using light. The
way to create a silhouette is to have significantly brighter light coming
from behind the subject. In doing this it is important to take your
camera light reading off of the background instead of the subject in order
for the camera to adjust for an exposure based on the backlight. If
you do this the subject will be successfully underexposed like in the
picture at the top of this page.
If you keep experimenting with different ways of
using light you will find that you can get very
interesting results. The longer the exposure,
the more fascinating the results with light most of
the time. In the picture on the right, this is
a long single exposure and yes that is the same
person in two places. If your wondering how
this was possible, here's how.
The shutter speed was set for around 30 seconds, the
camera was set on a tripod and
someone stood next to the camera with a flashlight. The subject then
stood in one place while the flashlight was pointed at him and moved in an
up and down motion. After around 15 seconds the flashlight was turned
off and the subject was told to move to his left. Then the flashlight
was pointed at him again and moved up and down until the camera finished the
exposure.
The use of light in a photograph can be the deciding
factor of whether that picture will be spectacular
or terrible. When you use your camera to
automatically chose aperture and shutter speed, what
your camera is actually doing is using the built in
light meter and measuring how much light is being
reflected to the camera. 
The angle
of light should be taken into careful consideration whenever you feel
like you want to create a specific effect.
Shadows can be very powerful when cast over half of
someone's face. In this photo on the left the
light is striking the statue's face from the rear
right of the camera and this adds more depth to the
picture. It also adds more coloring because if
front-lighting was used his face would likely be
over exposed, and if back-lighting was used his face
would just be black like a silhouette.
The effect of
rays of light indoors and outdoors. can be very spectacular. A
brilliant part of some great photographs is the ability to see actual rays
of light. Whether it be in the setting of a brilliant sunset, light
pouring through a window or from artificial lights it can look very
impressive. Usually the only way to obtain something like this is a
narrow aperture (high f/stop) and a very slow
shutter speed.
If you keep experimenting with different ways of
using light you will find that you can get very
interesting results. The longer the exposure,
the more fascinating the results with light most of
the time. In the picture on the right, this is
a long single exposure and yes that is the same
person in two places. If your wondering how
this was possible, here's how. 
