Without light there would be no photography. Light is everything. The word photography comes from ancient Greece and means “drawing with light”. Good photographers develop an appreciation for light that goes far beyond the accurate measurement needed to determine proper exposure.

For landscape and nature photographers, the quality of light is just as important as the location itself. If you've never paid much attention to quality of light and you want to start now — I promise, over time, it will change the way you “see” everything.

Imagine a bright, hazy, sunny day at high noon. In the middle of a country field stands a lone tree. Under this kind of light, the sky, the tree, the grasses, the line of trees in the background don't look particularly beautiful or photogenic. If you took a picture of the scene, you would probably find it pretty lacking in visual appeal. Too bright. Too harsh. Too contrasty.

As the day goes on, the shifting shadow of the lone tree marks time as the sunlight begins to change. Toward evening, sunlight begins to grow softer and golden as it passes through more atmosphere, and the over-all glow in the sky becomes warmer. This is the quiet prelude to the golden hour.

The golden hour in photography arrives as late afternoon slips toward evening, when sunlight turns rich and golden, painting everything in its warm, gold-washed light.

Now the lone tree, the grasses in the field, the entire scene is transformed — it looks nothing like it did at noon. Now beauty touches everything. The scene glows. If you take a picture from the same spot as before and compare images, the difference will be striking. Same location. Same subject matter. The only difference? The quality of light.

Not only does the quality of light change throughout the day, but storms, fog, cloud cover, and seasonal shifts transform it even further. As the sun’s intensity softens and its angle lowers—especially moving from fall into winter—the directional light becomes moodier, cooler, and more diffused. Then, as winter turns to spring, the rising sun restores contrast, warmth, and clarity.

You know the green tint the sky can take on right before a storm? Myths say the green skies mean tornadoes are coming, but the real cause is the way light moves through a storm heavy with rain and hail. When storm clouds scatter blue wavelengths and the setting sun adds the red and orange wave lengths those colors mix and you get eerie green skies. Capture the otherworldly effect quickly before the shifting light changes. Include in your composition stacked elements of interest that lead the viewer's eyes into a scene painted with the phenomenon's eerie effect.

Light can behave in mysterious ways that aren’t really mysterious at all. It’s just physics — wavelengths shifting, scattering, and revealing the hidden colors inside every scene.

Mornings have a softer quality of light than evenings — cooler, more toward the blue spectrum. Evening light is warmer — more toward the red spectrum.

The angle of the sun determines how much atmosphere sunlight has to travel through. In the mornings, there is less dust and moisture in the atmosphere, so the light is soft and cooler. Early morning photographers will always be rewarded with some of the best light of the day for rising early.

By noon, sunlight travels through a shorter path in the atmosphere, resulting in harsh, bright, high-contrast light not very conducive to beautiful photography.

By evening, the atmosphere has filled with dust, smoke, pollution and moisture, scattering blue wavelengths away, and leaving us with warm dramatic red and orange light that turns the sky brilliant at sunset. This is the golden hour, when the light shifts and the landscape changes into a softer, more picturesque version of its earlier self. Landscape, nature and portrait photographers love this light.

Cloudy days change the light. It becomes scattered and softened — the clouds act like a big light box in the sky. Instead of harsh contrasty sunlight and extreme differences between shadows and highlights, you get soft, even illumination that makes the entire scene more visually pleasing in photographs.

Foggy mornings introduce a mysterious quality to every tableau. Fog becomes both the central character and the backdrop — a mood-setting atmosphere that adds emotion, depth, and power in your photographs. Fog creates so many opportunities for great photography. Fog can be beautiful, evocative, mysterious, spooky or even a bit sinister.

Keep your camera handy, as fog starts to burn off and sunlight begins to penetrate, look around and find a brightly lit subject still set against a foggy background. The effect can be visually striking and can make an equally striking photograph.

The Right Light

I’ve found that even the homeliest of scenes can become beautiful in the right light. A landscape that feels flat or uninspiring at noon can turn striking when the light shifts.

When you start paying attention to the quality of light, you begin to notice how much more beautiful even the smallest things can be — the soft morning glow touching the flowers you planted out front, or the evening sun slipping behind the trees, making the leaves glow as if lit from within.

Everyday things, seen in the right light, become moments of quiet beauty. When you learn to notice that beauty, it feels like a gift — a fleeting moment meant only for your eyes and your soul.