Take one large open field, two people, an enclosure full of lambs and a dramatic sky.
All of the above spell trouble......
I've always thought that after composition, correct focal length and getting a connection with your subject, the next thing in a Photographers bag of tricks is lighting.
On this commission, a job to photograph a local farmer that supplies fresh lamb to the local National Trust property and the National Trust's outreach person, i had to photograph them with the lambs, talking to each other along with general images of them feeding the lambs-all well and good i hear you say, but.....what about the light?
On this day the sky was a very dramatic white and grey with huge billowing clouds, something that would look great in the final image but this is where the lighting comes in, expose for the sky and the two subjects are almost silhouettes, expose for the subjects and the sky turns white.
A human eye can see a huge range of light and dark, a camera see's a lot less, so this is where the lighting comes in......
Basically i exposed for the dramatic sky which left the subject as silhouettes, brought in my battery powered flash lights to light up the subjects to the exposure of the sky to get the image above, i underexposed the sky slightly to get a really dramatic effect.
Without the flash it would have been a very dull picture.
I usually take a battery flash with me on a job-it could make or break an image, i'd rather make an image.
