Importance of ‘Lighting’ for a Good Picture

All the text given below are based on my practical study over the past 22 years of working experience and not theatrical.

The importance of light as the main source of element in any kind of landscape be it urban or rural can’t be stressed enough. What is Photography? Photography literally means “writing with light.” One actually photographs light reflected from the objects rather than the object itself. A good landscape picture reflects the use of natural light skillfully and imaginatively.
While shooting any type of landscape be it urban or rural avoid the midday sun. As seen in the picture the use of late evening light is very essential for a good landscape picture.
If you need to experiment try and use the late afternoon light which can provide you the back light conditions. This condition can help your picture with an added value of long, deep shadows with sparkling highlights.
Try several exposures and aperture combination once in 5 minutes, keep a note of them and compare them frame by frame after your shoot, you will notice the difference in the lighting conditions.

This picture of the Upper Lake in Bhopal was pictured after I had spend a 24 hour study on the change of lighting from atop an hill overlooking the lake. This picture was finally taken at 4.55 am in the morning and was used as a half page spread on the first day of the HT Bhopal live launch in May, 2000.

This picture was taken the previous night while I was trying to study the lighting conditions for my final shoot at the Upper lake in Bhopal.


This picture of Lamayuru in Ladakh was taken at around 5:40 pm in the evening when I was trekking up to the guest house near the army camp in June,1997. You get to the play of light with dark shadows and and the blue skyline which adds value to an otherwise straight picture.


This picture is also of Lamayuru with the Himalayan ranges in the backdrop which was taken the second day of my stay at the abode. This picture was around 4.45 pm in the evening with direct sunlight on the ladies side.




This skyline was taken in Bhopal when I my wife S Jayalakshmi called to inform me that the sky above was very attractive and worth being pictured at around 6.30 pm in July 2000. I went atop the office terrace and got this image. This image was pictured in a analog Single Reflex Lens (SLR) Camera body. The fun to work with analog is done to death with the advent of digital SLR coming in.

This picture of the Vidhan Soudha which houses the Karnataka State Assembly (Political Power Seat) was taken during my job with the Bangalore Mirror in 2007. I had climbed a high raised building to picture the fully lit up cricket stadium which you see below, and in the bargain got two more good pictures of the silicon city skyline with 'feel great colour combination'.

This picture of the fully lit up chinnaswamy cricket stadium was taken around 6 pm in October 2007, after I had gone to inspect the view during the mid afternoon light. This picture was taken from this angle since my friend and design head of Bangalore Mirror, Shyam Sunder Singh wanted a absolute stunning picture for the cover page on the eve of the One day International between Australia and India in 2007.


This picture also was taken on the same day when I had gone to photograph the stadium.







This picture was taken in 2007, when the Madaras Sappers were celebrating their annual regatta at the Ulsoor lake in Bangalore.






This picture of the Bengaluru International Airport was taken on the inaugural day at around 6.45 pm. I forced the reporter to leave the office by 4.30 pm so that I could catch the lighting which I needed to make the picture look stunning and different from the other newspapers the next morning.