{Outside Play with a Small Tutorial!!!} Alliston, ON Photographer

The other day as I watched my kids play outside I pulled out my camera to try a little experiment but also just to document them as they were.  This afternoon was an on again off again overcast afternoon.  When it comes to photography and light I love overcast days.  As one of my CM instructors had said, its like the entire sky is a giant soft box.  That means nice soft light.   But it can also can mean flat non dimensional light.

This also can play into catch lights.  Wikipedia defines catch lights as "a light source that causes a spectacular highlight in a subject's eye in an image."  I like to think of catch lights as that sparkle in your eyes or the twinkle.  My mother in law often says that my husband always had a sparkle in his eyes when he was a little boy and I often picture him outside getting into trouble but being in beautiful light causing those beautiful catch lights-- the ones she often saw.

On overcast days catchlights can still be found!!  I took two simple images of my daughter both under the tree-- so under more shade.  The first image I had her look straight on to me.  Notice how muddy and dull her eyes looks.  Not much sparkle at all.  In the second image I simply repositioned her to face where the sun would be shinning if it had been out and had her tilt her head upwards a bit.  Found them!!  And surprisingly even though it was cloudy, she still had a hard time keeping her eyes wide open as it still was bright.  I had her close her eyes until I was ready then counted to three and she opened and I snapped.  Catch lights are also more predominant in lighter blue eyes but here we were able to get some as well.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed my first ever tutorial and if you have any questions or comments let me know!!