Finding Light

As photographers, we’re all light seekers. For us, it’s all about finding the quality of light. What are you drawn to? What makes you tick? Me and Suzi have talked before that light almost becomes another character in a photo. The delicate thread that weaves through an image to create an emotional connection to the viewer. So how do you start really seeing the light? On our last retreat, we talked about what’s helped us see it, but I think this should really be how we FEEL it. How does it make you feel when you see backlit grass bending in the early evening breeze, or the spot on the stairs illuminated in the morning through the bannister? Maybe it’s how you feel when you see the shadow of leaves on the trunk of the old oak tree dancing in the dappled light.

If me and Suzi had a choice, we would probably choose to shoot our family portraits in the golden hours permanently. Those times just after sunrise, or just before sunset. Of course it’s not always practical, but give it a try if you can, you will really see a difference. Are you drawn into delicate light, all dreamy and ethereal? This will more than likely be BACKLIGHT. Gossamer threads and subtle golden tones.

The sun will be behind your subject. Using light in this way, you can achieve that beautiful rim light too that really helps to create depth in your images. You may want to try a silhouette of your subject, if not, over expose for your subject. You might find it a bit harder to focus, so we often manually focus when we’re using backlight.

Sometimes we’ll battle with the harsh overhead sunlight that midday can bring. Living in the Pennies though, we do often come across those dull overcast days, and we don’t mind shooting in these at all. EVEN or DIFFUSED light doesn’t have to be flat. You might want to think about the location you’re shooting in so depth comes from the positioning of your subject.

If it's absolutely bucketing down, it’s probably not going to be too much fun for anyone, but try getting out just after the rain – the light can be lovely. Catchlight in your subject’s eyes can really make your images pop. Windows to the soul.

I've always been drawn to the dark, but a dark that's shattered by a pop of light, whether from a window, a gap in the trees, or a sunny spot on a staircase. Especially with shoots in a family home, I look for this type of light. FRONT LIGHT can be very dramatic, contrasty and like a theatre spotlight. I love finding this light, and more often than not, it’s spilling onto the stairs. I have a whole series of these ‘kids on the steps’ shots!

Using it outdoors can give such a strong feeling to an image too, just be careful not to have your subject squinting into the light.

SIDE LIGHT from a window can provide lots of atmosphere in a shot. It's best to turn off interior lights indoors. We love the way the light hits one side of the subject’s face and then drifts into shadow. It gives a cinematic quality, a moment suspended. It's the light that really makes me tick. Suzi always knows when I've found it as I'll take a sharp intake of breath!

If you’re interested in this type of light too, maybe just have a Google at some of those Dutch Masters, and look how they created such feeling in their paintings. Those subtle contrasts and shadows, and how they managed to capture the beauty in the everyday in such a striking way. To me, they are the ultimate light seekers. I love its constant pull. It can really help to reflect a tender moment,

Here’s an easy exercise if you want to find YOUR light. Pick out your favourite photos from your Insta feed, look at Pinterest, or photos you are drawn to in magazines, and look for the signature light. Print them out and put them in front of you if you can. How does it make you FEEL when you look at the collection?

When you’re next on a walk, or even just doing things round the house, just see how the light falls at different times of the day. As the sun is getting lower in the sky this season, the quality of light changes. Warm and golden, drawn out shadows, it’s a great time to get out and experiment!

What I love about photography is just by using your feet around your subject, and using all the different angles of light, you can get so many different feelings in quite a short space of time.

We do talk about light a lot on our retreats as we feel so strongly about the way you use light can really help consistency in your work. We still have early bird places available for our next Capturing Childhood on the 30th and 31st March 2019. Over the weekend, we go a lot deeper into how we can use light to reflect emotion, through exercises and practicals. If you’d like more information, here’s the link to our retreat page.

If you think this post it could help anyone, please do share. And if you’d like to ask us anything about light, how to use it, how we use it, just let us know. And most of all, happy light seeking!

Capturing Childhood

When me and Suzi talk about our business together, and why we do what we do, it always comes down to how we’d like everyone to be able to capture family life now, either by a pro, or in their own photographs, as these moments we’re documenting are the ones our future families will be holding close. There’s never been a time when there’s so much emphasis on this, to celebrate lives and tell their unique stories, catching the beauty of the everyday as well as the things that make you you.

On the 30th & 31st of March, we’re running our third CAPTURING CHILDHOOD photography retreat. You can click on this link to find all about it. As family photographers, we wanted to pass on what we’ve learnt over the last 10 years to other photographers who might just be setting up their business, or to parents who’d like to be able to document their own family life.

Nestled on the edge of woodland and moor, our retreats take place in a beautiful barn just above Hebden Bridge. It’s the perfect place to relax, learn, feast, and be inspired. Over the weekend there are a number of shoots we’ll do together with different aged children, and this culminates in a family shoot on the Sunday.

Over the weekend we look at how to use different light, capturing movement and connections, editing photos, finding your style, and you’ll leave with a portfolio of images from the shoots we have.

We wanted to share some photos taken by the people who’ve been on our capturing childhood weekends, so the following photos were all taken by our retreatees.

If you’d like to learn with us, we’d love to have you. You can find more information and book your place on the Capturing Childhood weekend here.

‘The practical exercises and shoots with children and families of all ages were essential in boosting our confidence and also learning on the go. It was incredibly helpful to look through Sarah and Suzi's work and ask questions about logistics, kit, technique and lighting - seeking out pockets of natural light has been a game changer!  However, for me, the retreat went much further than the settings of the camera. I am so grateful for the opportunity to explore my photography on a much deeper level and start to understand not only how to take pictures, but question why I am taking them and what feeling I want to evoke when other people look at them. I would recommend this course to anyone who has an interest in capturing childhood moments - either as a parent or a photographer.’ Rosie

Stories Of The Everyday - Winter Light

You’ve charged your camera battery, cleared your memory card, made your flask of tea, and you’re excited about the photos you’re going to take. And then you hit overwhelm with the possibilities of all the images you could or should take. And sometimes you don’t even take one image.

We’ve been there too!

And that’s why we wanted to give a helping hand. Having a theme can often really help make that shift, get your finger on the shutter, and get you feeling creative. We know some of you will have made intentions for your photography for 2019, and we don’t want you to be put off by the cold dark days of winter, we hope you’ll embrace them, and start, (or carry on) that relationship with your camera. As some of you know, we’ve been running our Stories of the Everyday hashtag on Instagram for a few years. It’s a lovely community, growing every week, and we share visual stories from around the world every Friday. We’ll keep doing this, but we also wanted to introduce a monthly theme, to help with that motivation, and maybe help you to build a portfolio of shots with a similar feel. So we’re going to launch a theme until the end of January, right now! And it’s…

Winter Light

You don’t even have to step outside if you’re in hibernation mode and can’t entertain getting out of your onsie! Of course if you did want to take photos in the great outdoors and soak that winter light and air in, you may want to think about the onsie. There will be 12 themes this year. We’re a bit late launching this one, but they will be at the start of every month. The hashtag on Instagram for Jan will be #storiesoftheeveryday_winterlight. At the end of every month, we’ll showcase a selection of shots in our blog. Here’s a bit of inspiration if you’re thinking about what to do. We love using WINDOW LIGHT, so let’s start there, and it’s a light source we all have.

We like the subject (this can be a person or an object) to be facing the window, the light source, and we take the photo from one side. We shoot in manual, so we expose for the highlights in a shot so we can get those darker backgrounds. It’s something worth experimenting with if you’re feeling comfortable with those settings. You can usually achieve this darker background by making your shutter speed faster.

If shooting portraits maybe isn’t your thing, the same principles apply to still life subjects too…

You can see where the light source is, to the left of the lemon, as there is a subtle shadow to the right of it. Also, watch out for your backgrounds and maybe declutter. I decided I wanted to keep those objects in the background as I liked the yellow tones mirrored. On all three of these window light shots, it was a pretty grizzly day outside.

And then if we go outdoors, get wrapped up and embrace what the day brings! This shot was taking in January on a variable day. The wintry sun had just gone behind the clouds. If the light is quite flat like this, I often get the subject to look straight at me.

You’ve probably heard of backlight. This does exactly what it says on the tin, it backlights your subject matter. The sun is low in the sky at this time of year, but the sweet spot is to be found in those golden hours. You can see here that there is lens flare on the photo, this can happen when you’re shooting directly into the sun. This is personal taste, and we love a bit of it.

Think about taking your photos from different perspectives.

It’s fun trying to capture steam rising from a cup of tea using backlight, both indoors and out. If you try it indoors, face the window directly and have the cup between you and the light. And if you take it outdoors, fingerless gloves are a great idea, you can get to all your dials and buttons on the camera, and then warm the ends of your fingers up on your cuppa.

And then there are the magic pockets of light. Sometimes on a staircase, sometimes through the trees, sometimes like a spotlight in an indoor market…

Or on your staircase. I took this one with my phone.

We hope there are a few ideas here you’d like to try out. I think January can be the hardest month for a lot of people and this is just a small way to try and get you using your cameras. And remember, don’t give yourself a hard time! We’ll have another theme starting in February. Remember to tag your photos with #storiesoftheeveryday_winterlight on Instagram, and we will share your photos in a post. And if you just want to see what other folk are up to, just follow the hashtag. We hope this blog helps a little.

In December, we ran a Winter Light workshop in a beautiful Yorkshire home. The day was particularly grizzly outdoors, and my aim was to show our workshoppers what light they can play with indoors even on the grimiest of days. I’ve put a selection of their shots below. I ended up in quite a few photos myself as you can see (I actually quite enjoyed being in front of the camera). You might get a few more ideas from these. Thanks to Julie, Heather, Jess and Sarah for the photos.

Whatever you experiment with, we hope you have fun! We’re excited to see what you all come up with. And if you’d like to find out about any of our retreats and mentoring, you can take a look here.

All the best, Sarah and Suzi x