LIGHT – No matter what you or I photograph, light is the fundamental component of the image that is ultimately created from the shot. While light in a studio environment can be switched on and off precisely and in controlled doses at the touch of a button, as landscape photographers, we are dependent on the largest light source there is – the sun.
Light & Color
Which brings us right to the heart of the matter: designing motifs with the help of sunlight. Sunlight is the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum of solar radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface through the five layers of the Earth’s atmosphere. Depending on the source cited, this visible part ranges between 380 and 780 nanometers. It is bounded in the lower range by ultraviolet light (315–380 nm (UVA)) and in the upper range by infrared light (780–1,400 nm (IR-A)). Below or above these wavelengths, the human eye can perceive neither color nor brightness. Even though the naming of colors is based on a specific wavelength range, the perception of colors is and remains a very individual matter. Regardless of our respective cultural backgrounds, this is primarily due to the innate, genetically determined tolerance range to which every eye is subject (for example, inherited red-green color blindness).
Info box Nanometer: Nanometer, abbreviated nm, is the unit used to measure the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light. One nanometer corresponds to one billionth of a meter, 10⁻⁹, or one millionth of a millimeter (0.000001 mm, 10⁻⁶).
Info box: Colors: Colors or shades that result from the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum of solar radiation differ in terms of their wavelength. Although sunlight contains all colors, they only become visible to the human eye when the sunlight is reflected.
Sunlight itself comprises the seven basic colors (also known as rainbow colors), which the English scientist Isaac Newton first made visible in the 18th century with his prism experiment. Today, we refer to these colors as violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red. But roughly speaking, sunlight itself is not visible to the human eye. It only becomes visible when it reflects the intrinsic color of an object. This results in the two non-colors black and white when all wave ranges are absorbed (black) or reflected (white).
When light falls on a green surface, only the green light beam is reflected (the same applies to other colors). The other wavelengths are absorbed.
RIGHT: Fuji GFX 100 . Fuji GF100-200mm @105mm . F/11 . 1/13″ . ISO 160 . WB 6,735K . Tripod
The white surface reflects the entire spectrum. A black surface does not reflect any light.
The sun, as a light source and thus also as a design element, appears in a reliable, recurring rhythm, but its light varies! The position of the sun throughout the year and at different times of the day (= the sun’s altitude), as well as the prevailing weather conditions, provide a rough guide to the colors to be expected in the landscape. I will leave aside the geographical location (further north, closer to the equator) here. Not to forget the prevailing weather conditions. Season, time of day, weather – it sounds almost banal! Nevertheless, these are the decisive factors that are all too often ignored.
The seasons not only lengthen or shorten the length of the day and thus the availability of the sun. Even though shadows tend to be overlooked in European perception compared to light, they vary in length and harshness with the seasons and the associated sun height. When the shadows are shorter with the high summer sun, they are also harder in their contours. With the lower winter sun, on the other hand, the shadows become longer and visibly softer. The same applies to the light itself: the summer sun mainly produces harder light, while the winter sun, with its soft, velvety light, radiates a warm light despite the low outside temperatures.
An early summer morning with wisps of fog rising from the Elbe Valley. The high humidity causes the light to scatter, creating soft contrasts and a softer image impression.
RIGHT: Nikon D700 . Nikkor 24-70mm @35mm . 1/10″ . ISO 200 . WB 7,600K . GND 0.9 soft . Tripod
The same shooting position a few months earlier. Even though the delicate dawn glow radiates a certain warmth, the outside temperature on this winter morning was a refreshing -27 °C. The cold, dry air is crystal clear, resulting in harsh contrasts.
If you find the wait between seasons too long, savor the twilight phases of the day, which also offer an amazing variety of colors. My photo shows dawn at the end of May on the Baltic Sea. The main challenge here is your ability to endure! You need to have your tripod and camera, and filters, if necessary, in position by 3:45 a.m. at the latest, when the first light of day appears.
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