Whether you are photographing people, landscapes, a still life, or whatever else, you are photographing light.
Everything we see is a source of light.
The source of light is either an illuminating light source or a reflecting light source.
It’s important to pay attention to an illuminating light source because a reflective light source can not be seen without an illuminating light source.
When we are outside during the day, the only reason we can see everything is because daylight is illuminating the earth and the daylight is reflected by everything we see. Without daylight, or artificial light to replace daylight, nothing exists visually.
Next time you’re looking at something, take some time to pay attention to the light source that is illuminating whatever you’re looking at. Is it a sunny day, cloudy day or some type of artificial light? How does this illuminating light source effect your reflecting light source?
In order to be a good photographers we need to learn to observe and work with light.