I promised in my last blog post about clutter that I would write next about good light vs. bad light.  And since then, I’ve been having a little anxiety about this post because what I have to tell you is simple. Almost too simple to warrant a whole post, but let’s see what we come up with.  The simple truth is:

There is no such thing as bad light.

Lemme say it again.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BAD LIGHT.

Light is totally subjective, like color, sound or flavor.  Whether or not you like a color has no bearing on its goodness or badness.  Likewise, my friend Danny LOVES spicy foods, while our mutual friend Eric does NOT.  (Caps for emphasis. In this case, those words should also be bold, italicized, about about ten points larger to make the point of how much they love and do no love, respectively, spicy food.) Someone else may find a lot of comfort in a scent that drives you bananas (for example, the smell of the Pachyderm building at the Oklahoma City zoo feels like home* to me**, while most people just think it smells like poop).  Our opinions about these things do not define them.

Whether or not light is “good” or “bad” is entirely subject to whom is using it and for what purpose. Light simply IS.  It has different characteristics like, hard or soft, bright or dim, warm or cool.  But none of it is bad. Conversely, none of it is really good either! It just IS.

So why do you hear photographers talk frequently about good light or bad light?  Because we’ve found the light we need for our current project–for our vision of what we’re working on right now.  Or we haven’t found it, if we’re talking about “bad light”. The project we work on next however, might require completely different light characteristics.  And none of it is bad!

Goodness knows I’ve used these words!  With one of my early engagement couples, I scheduled them for the golden hours: the one-two hour window before sundown in which the sunlight comes in at a low angle, and is “softened” considerably, and is typically a really warm golden tone.  Only it was overcast and grey, with a thick blanket of clouds blocking my warm evening light. And our location was thick with trees, further reducing what light was available. It was “bad light” because it wasn’t what I wanted. We ultimately scheduled a second shoot because I wasn’t happy with what I was seeing.  Truth be told, at that point in my career, I didn’t have the gear or the experience to take full advantage of what light I did have.

Our next session was almost exactly the opposite.  We’d gone a little earlier and had buckets of hard, bright, direct sunshine!  Which was also not quite what I wanted, so again, I had “bad” light! This time, however, there was so much more light to work with, that I was able to use the trees and even my subjects to modify the light in my favor.

They liked the new images much better too.

Now you know.  If you didn’t already.  When a photographer or other artist comments on the light being good or bad, you know it’s just not what they want for their creative vision.  They may or may not be willing/able to work with what they’ve got, but trust them. Trust them to know not only what they need for the current project, but also what they can do with the tools available.

* No, my home doesn’t smell like that–well, not quite, but I do have three cats and a dog.
** Remember, I used to work at the zoo when I was much younger and a lot of that time was spent in the Pachyderm building.