How to Balance your Light in your Photos

There are many different kinds of light balance and different ways to portray it in an image. The first image below was created by using a spray bottle and an external flash. When the mist hits the orange vanilla coke, the flash freezes it in it’s place. This creates a unique image and is often used when the creator wants to portray a fresh image. Orange vanilla coke isn’t exactly fresh from nature but it feels refreshing when placed with an orange, a vanilla bean and a natural appearing mist.

Another fun way to balance light is through blur motion. By maintaining a constant light on your subject and creating movement (for example, with water or sugar), it can create a gentle blur that seems to wash over the object in focus. To capture this sugar cascading over the berries, the person holding the spoon had to remain very still while simultaneously pouring the sugar. I then simply kept my shutter speed low and was able to capture a unique, motion blurred image.

The final image was created with a blue smoke bomb outside a barn. The balance of the light was truly crucial. We used natural light for this but often risked over exposing our shots. A smoke bomb image must be taken quick enough to gain a well exposed image without moving so quickly that the smoke streams are missed entirely. Smoke bombs can give an air of mystery and enchantment. They’re definitely great to use when capturing light balanced images but be sure to get it right the first time! Smoke bombs are expensive and don’t last long.

Check out the final images below!

Using Light Balance to Freeze Water Spray

A Sugar Stream with Light Balance

Using Light Balance with a Smoke Bomb

Want to learn more about how to balance the light in your photos? Check out dpmag’s page here!