Why light matters

Sometimes people ask me why I stage my still life props in natural light and take a photo rather than setting up a scene in my studio and using directional light. (From a lamp, for instance)

Caveat: I have nothing against this as a technique, it just isn’t for me

Why I take most of my photos for still life outside

I think that natural light from the sun hitting objects gives them such vibrant beautiful colours which aren’t replicable in indoor lighting.  Add to that a good shadow and you also get a really good contrast. Contrast makes paintings interesting and dynamic.

My wife and I live in Ipswich in Queensland. It gets quite hot here in summer but luckily for us, our house is surrounded by trees and greenery, but that also means I don’t get clear shafts of light coming in through the windows – it’s all very dappled. (I know, big problem, right? Having dappled light coming into your home)

So I try and find spots outside where the light shines in strongly and I have something that creates a bit of shadow. Then I take about thirty or so photos from different angles, using different configurations, teatowels, cloths, etc. Sometimes I just use my phone, sometimes my digital DLSR camera.

I load the photos onto my tablet and scroll through until I find the best light/prop configuration. Sometimes I will have a photo that shows up one aspect really well but not another, so I might use 2-3 photos altogether for a painting.  I also use my tablet to zoom in to get a better look at some of the detail and sometimes change the contrast or saturation to get a brighter look.

Because I’m using the sun as my light source, the time that it’s hitting my objects in just the right way only lasts a moment, so I need to capture it then and there.

In the set of photos above, I’ve set up a jar containing a few Iced Vovos in a shaft of light coming through a gate. (This was in our old rental property in Yeronga, so there won’t be any more setups like these unfortunately) There was a lot of lattice, so you can see all the patches of light coming through all the gaps. I had to have the gate slightly open to get the shaft of light coming through, and the cat kept trying to get out!

Then, when I was painting it I thought the white/grey wall was pretty boring, so I turned it into a teal/turquoise wall which contrasted nicely with the Iced Vovos.