 How's it? How's it? There is good light and then there is bad light. That's one of the biggest fallacies in photography. All light is great. It's just you have to know how to use it to its fullest effect. Golden Hour is a great example of light that is so easy to use that even my four-year-old could probably take a great photograph, or at least a lovely-looking one, at least I would think so, right in that period. But grey light, this murky northern hemisphere kind of well what the Scots call drick weather, right, is closing in upon us. So I thought that rather than encourage you to turn your attention to things indoors and shy away from the autumn, is to learn how to use this light in its fullest because there are some wonderful photographs just out there waiting, if you understand the quality and the nature of the light, how to harness it properly. During the summer months we are confronted with these clear blue skies, at least occasionally here in the UK, right, and great saturated colours, you know, the primaries are like really popping off there and stuff. But when we start turning our attention to the autumn there are those leaves, especially in sort of you know America and Canada that go through a riot of colour and you don't really get the same sort of saturation. So what you'd want to try and do is to get the colours to pop on a grey slightly overcast day where there isn't this kind of light bouncing off it to give it that saturation, is to contrast the things against a darker background. One of the quirks of photography is that when you contrast a colour or some light against a darker background, say a storm cloud or a hole in the forest where you can have the leaves against it, then it makes that colour feel more apparently saturated and like wow gives it some pop. So think about that, if you are trying to you know bring those colours of the leaves from fall out is to try and find a way of contrasting them against a darker background. And of course the very flatness of the light that you're working with when photographing out there is a huge benefit because during the summer we're working with a very specular light source, very tiny, you know if you look up in the sky the sun is so small so that gives you those harsh shadows, those very defined outlines to whatever is you know being creating a shadow and that's great but during the winter or the autumn when the sky is one big cloud it is a giant soft box and that is why the shadows disappeared because the the larger the apparent light source in comparison to the the subject being photographed the more defined or sorry the more soft the shadows. So that's why you have no shadows on a cloudy day because the light source is the entire sky whereas on a sunny day the light source is that tiny pinprick up there. So that's all a very long-winded way of saying that during the autumn and the winter when it's cloudy this lack of shadows means that you can play with tones a lot easier than you can when you are photographing during the summer for example because you're not having to deal with the shadows that you can explore going back to the idea of the leaves again you can explore the different subtle changes that you're now rather than looking at texture because of that strong light giving it definition but you're looking at pattern you're looking at creating an abstract and there's a little aside here Ansel Adams you know he was asked about using the word abstract in his photography and he said well the abstract kind of says that you are making something from nothing but what we are doing is actually is extracting detail from the things in front of us and I love that idea so we're going to extract these patterns and the shapes and the things that we see so use this to your advantage of course the same goes at the opposite end of the spectrum if you are thinking about landscape also people photographing people during the winter gives you a chance to create these lovely tonally rich portraits I'm a sucker for black and white portraits so naturally I'm going to lean towards that sort of thing but this is where you see these photographs of people that seem to throw out the rulebook you know we're told that you should have shape and form and and directional lighting and some shadows or something to give dimension to the face in photography but when you go the opposite end when you photograph on a cloudy day when it's all just overcast light then something magical happens I can't quite put my finger on what it is but there's a feeling to these portraits that makes them feel almost ethereal when you are photographing in the autumn or the winter you want to be mindful of the kind of mood that your photographs are going to have to rather than fight against the mood is to try and enhance it in my mind winter and autumn are really about quietness about introspection about after the hecticness of summer to sit back and just take stock of things so when you use those moods or if I were to use those moods in my photographs then it is playing to the strength of the kind of light that's where we kind of end up with this idea about good light and bad light it's you know trying to make or try to expect certain types of light to behave in a way that is completely opposite to what we want and then get frustrated because we can't do that I mean if you're trying to photograph you know somebody who is strongly backlit with all these you know sun bursts and all sort of stuff you need sun you can't do that obviously with a cloudy day on a cloudy day understand that you're not going to get that separation between things so how can you use that to your advantage how can you decide well okay I don't have strong shadows to give a sense of motion and movement and stuff but what else could I do I could do a long exposure for example cloudy days overcast days are wonderful times to practice long exposure if that's the kind of thing that you're into or getting wonderfully toned black and white prints I said earlier you know you don't have to fight with it it is it is such a wonderful tool a gift to the photographer who is trying to you know learn about creating a tonal range because you're not dealing with extremes in the same way that you are during the summer months or during directional lighting of course not all gray skies are created equal are they no no no so because of course you know a gray day with lots of different clouds and you know layers of of interest in the sky is wonderful but a day when there is just that kind of murky flat what looks like a puddle of chalky water in the sky is not going to do you any favors if you're trying to shoot a grand landscape so if you're confronted with that kind of day think about changing your approach just thinking about going into photographing details tiny subject things that would be difficult to photograph in a sunny directional light kind of day you know I think in this respect of pictures like Bob Carlos Clark and his stones that though I have a feeling that they were photographed in a studio they have this quiet look to them that you can now make sculptural kind of photographs that have a wide range of tones within them that the the grayness of the autumn and overcast days is a blessing to the photographer who is trying to come to grips with creating tonal ranges in their photographs you're during the summer and during directional light and like on a day like today outside where there's a very blue sky despite the fact that's beginning of October and and I can see that this would be a challenging environment to have a novice photographer create a picture with a wide tonal range in it but the gray days because everything is compressed gives you a chance to create a print especially in black and white that has a wide range of tones because you're not having to work out crazy exposures you're not having to push and pull things and jiggle histograms around and so you can concentrate on a little bit of dodge and burn a little bit of creating some depth to that photograph because those tones are so smooth long exposure photography is a prime example of this you know when they are photographing in gray overcast days that the sky becomes this almost like a river you know when there are those clouds to use another Scottish word scudding across the sky it is like amazing so the next time that you are confronted with light that you think ah this is just gray and rubbish don't just dismiss it out of hand because it's not dramatic because it's not you know this kind of jaw dropping owed majesty of nature kind of thing embrace the the solitude of the of the time play to its strengths you don't have to think about it too much just react naturally to it don't force it and let see what comes and presents itself to you to help you take your black and white prints from just gray flat images to sumptuous totally rich wonderful images i put a video up on screen here which will talk you through the whole process of getting a great black and white photograph thank you ever so much for watching and i will see you again soon