Thanks for joining me today here for another episode of The Art Of Seeing. What is your favourite time of year to be photographing outside? I like the early spring as the land is still in it's winter mode, but the lighting can change so quickly (plus it's a bit warmer outside!)

Great video, rarely to find a Chanel discuss the art in photography not the gear in it. Thanks a lot

I found this channel purely by accident and I’m so glad I did. The photography knowledge here is outstanding and so eloquently delivered. A great combination of the technical and the artistic.

When we think we see things, all we see is actually just light! Wow! Hilariously thought-provoking! Thanks for sharing!

I'm not one that has gone to college or university to study as I'm not good at learning in that manner. However your channel feels more educational than any of the other Photography channels on KZfaq. Thank you for your time making and allowing us to learn from your experience.

A great and inspirational teacher! Every video makes me start taking pictures with new exciting ideas.

THANK YOU! Were it not for you, I genuinely would have given up on photography long ago. ✌🏻👊🏻

When we use"light" in the sense of being able to see an object, we also use black in order to determine the boundaries of the object. Using the word 'light' is such a bold description of it all.

Bravo…let there be light!🌈🌈🌈

So much good stuff here. I would not have minded if you had slowed it down a bit and took twice as long to get through this video. Thanks for posting.

Yes, I found this useful. Your explanations feel unbiased.

Thank you so much. This presentation was very enlightening for me.

You are quickly becoming my favourite channel both for your teaching and as pure entertainment. "Software gymnastics" ~ such an accurate turn of phrase. I don't have a favourite time of year outside; it is all good. Living in the subarctic, I enjoy fabulous quality of light both night and day.

Thank you for your interesting perspective on light in photography.

The white balance tip is gold.

I can't appreciate this enough. I've been a photographer since 1998 and recently I've been dwelling on what sort of ideas I want to work on. Even though I know the composition method, I am really enjoying your approach, which is most definitely enriching the quality of my thinking towards my projects. Thank you so much.

Hi Alex, I've watched quite a few of your videos now and am hooked. You share some amazing knowledge and your style of delivery is just fantastic. I could listen to you talk about photography all day! You would have been a fantastic BBC presenter, back in the day when there were serious shows about art and culture on television!

Dear Alex Kilbee, I discovered your channel just a few days ago and have followed dozens of your posts over the last two days. I am inspired by what you have to say. It gives me a lot of pleasure to listen to them. Thank you for your fantastic work. Best regards, Stefan

White balance off auto and on to daylight is my favourite way to capture natural light. It seems to me to best emulate film photography in capturing lighting moods like the weird yellow green as the sun shines under storm clouds, the green shadows in a forest, or the actual golden light that gave golden hour its name. Auto white can be useful but it often also seems auto bland, so too for digital correction off grey card shots.

very usefull ..very inspiring explanations and images..love your channel..greetings from germany

KZfaq recommended your videos and it’s rare for the algorithm to be on point. Thank you for your generosity and kindness in creating conceptional and creatively rich content. As a new photographer I’m grateful.

Superb. Informative. Inspiring. Thank you.

Thank you for the great content. Your channel is really about photography; far from the camera/lens marketing frenzy that has plagued KZfaq. Your videos have made me look more into the works of famous photographers and understand why they excelled at what they did, it also made me more intentional about taking photos.

"Software gymnastics" lol love that one! Lately I've preferred sketching out the image visions in my head before shooting so there's less time sitting/at computer and more time working on real gymnastics, so my body doesn't stay stuck in a "chair posture" :P I love your channel and this video in particular explains light in a way that few have done on KZfaq. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your thoughts on photography and light. You mention in this video, ..."once you learn to read and understand and use light to your advantage in camera without resorting to software gymnastics then you are going to be in charge of everything within that image." Your example of taking a picture of sunset with one's camera set on "daylight" acts a good exercise as I find myself wrestling with appropriate settings to get appropriate exposure for foreground, mid, and background in a sunset in a single shot. I apologize for the obvious naivete. What I hear you say is, if you know how to use the camera (and I sooooo want to know how to use my camera), you can get that shot in one shot, in camera, without post-processing "gymnastics." And, not to digress, but what used to only happen in post-processing and "gymnastics", now has crawled right inside these contraptions as they offer intervalometers, exposure bracketing, not to mention all manner of in-camera processing. Thoughts? Two nights ago, I went with the LOML to watch the sunset and try to get a photograph. As I mention above, in manual or even aperture priority mode, I can't seem to get where I want. Either the clouds look gorgeous and all else is way under exposed, or the foreground looks great and the clouds are blown out. My first attempt at HDR post-processing resulted in the only picture that felt like it kinda, sorta, captured the scene. (Sorry, you asked for URLs of photos in one of your videos. I post only to ask the question. So, I guess, roast away, however, please remember I have owned the camera for six weeks and photography is not what I do. Though I would like to do it better, which I guess is why we are all here. Thank you again. :) ) www.photocrowd.com/photos/sunset-at-gully-trail-trailhead-del-mar-ca-5339298.8ad09dcc4/ Methods like high dynamic range compositing seem to solve this problem, but is it cheating. Is that an example of knowing how to use one's camera to harness the light? Or, does this show an example of software gymnastics? So much thanks! Keep up the great work!

Autumn is my favourite season, I love the colors. Your videos have me wide awake to so much exciting possibilites. Thank you.

Thanks again for an inspirational video.

Thanks!

So glad I discovered this channel. Looking forward to watching it grow.

Great essay as always and fantastic channel.

thank you so much, now I SEE THE LIGHT!

So glad I have found you.I cannot wait to watch more, many thanks

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us... and the background music is superb!!!

Photo-graphy simply means the Art of Light. Thus, the second most important skill a photographer need to learn or know is to identify the light to make a photograph. In a studio enviroment, we just have to create the light using strobes. Concepts well explained.

Superb video. Thank you very much. I will surely watch all episodes of The Art of Seeing. Happy New Year

Great video as always, Alex. It’s so important to keep in mind the positioning of light and shadows when composing an image. Looking forward to your next video. Cheers!

Just delightful to get this perspective. Thanks so much!

Awesome content. Just found your channel last night. How refreshing!

I was searching for something like your channel. Thanks 🙏

And the man said let there be Light, or the lack of. Tony Australia

Just discovered your channel Alex ... very much enjoying this series and looking forward to more great content. Very useful insights, and well presented, thank you!

Another excellent video. My favorite time of year has to be either spring or fall. More for the climate than the light- summers are hot and humid and winters are cold and damp where I live. I read once that there is no such thing as "bad light", there is only the wrong light for the subject. I really enjoy your channel. Thanks for all your effort to create your videos.

I followed the instructions precisely. I have just taken an image which in my opinion at this moment, one of my most favourite I’ve ever taken.

You enlighten in the dark, and make things brighter with sparks. Thanks for Your wonder - full sharing :-)

Thank you for this wonderful series with it inspiring bio of past and future artist/photographers. There introduction enhance my appreciation of my love of the craft and beauty of photo.

Cameras record light. Good light = good image. The gear is just in the way. Good video. Helping people find the light they want for their vision is an excellent topic. Thanks.

Found you through the “algorithm “ 🙂. But like others have said you do a great job discussing and explaining photography and not gear, gear, gear. Keep up the great work and letting all my photography friends know about this channel. I am a seasoned photographer but this has refreshed my willingness to look deeper into my photographic journey. Well done!

Hello again Alex. Another cracking video with wonderful examples. For me, your image of the staircase, the man at the bottom, and the image flanked by angular shapes and form, lines defined by light and shadow, and a sense of mystery too, seems a perfect examplar. Many thanks.

muito, muito obrigado por esse vídeo!

Love watching your videos! Very infomative, and very well put together!!! ✌

Your videos are very inspiring. Subscribed

I usually set picture control to monochrome in my camera, white balance, exposure, ISO set manually, like you suggested to explore. I use graduated filters, polarising filter to feather in the lighting condition and save the hightlights without being blown out. My aim is to cover the blackest black to the whitest white on the histogram and the monochrome photo helps. I shoot raw. The photo automatically gets converted to colour by default by the computer. I find the colour I get is controlled and provides more leeway when editing the files. My dream is to get the monochrome Leica Q2.

My favorite photographers shot with available light, and I am obviously influenced by them. But there is always more to learn and this video was inspiring. Thank you!

Great Episode Alex. Thank you. I enjoyed that you added some of your own images to the episode. They are rather good. All of the images used did a very good job of explaining the concepts you presented. I am useless with flash and so am very interested in exploring natural light and night photography. I primarily shoot a Fuji XPro-3 with the optical view finder to have the benefits of mirrorless along with a real eye view of the scene. I find this allows me to see the light much better than the EVF.

thank for all your wonderfull photographic help and advice you are one of the best teachers this ART

I agree with you on early Spring. I also love Autumn for dramatic skies. Great video as usual!

Another great video Alex. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Muy buenos vídeos. Few of the KZfaq videos where you can really learn technic. Keep like this. Ánimo!

Damn good👍 Bravo!!

very informative and gave me alot to think about. Thanks for sharing! i believe i am starting to notice light more and more in a scene

Excellent as ever! Highly informative and engaging.

Your videos are phenomenal. Thank you very much.

Southern California weather- seems it's ALWAYS summer / harsh light. The winter months seems to give the nicest light - it's at an angle which gives a nice contrast

Another excellent educational video Alex, thank you again.

Glad youtube recommended me such a great and useful content.

Just discovered your channel, and very happy that I did. Excellent tutorials and very interesting information on famous photographers. Personally, I think each season has its own challenges, each season is interesting for a photographer - but autumn is my favorite ;-).

Fantastic channel

Thank you

Superb!

You look like someone who I can take both photography and fashion advice from. Thanks for the video!

I have been taking photos since 2011. I am only now starting to understand photography

I grew up on film and still use it lots. I record light on digital cameras as if I were using film by using pre sets or a custom setting. I do not use auto white balance it gives what I think of as an incipid colour palette.

Thanks for the great photos you shared on Using the Light. I have been a fan of light (and Photography) since I learned that photography means 'writing with light'. Unfortunately, there are far fewer people who enjoy black & white than when I started--when developing and printing were mandatory and digital was a thing of the future. After my walls were full, I became a 'closet photographer; and when my closets were full, I stopped photographing. Then my grandson gave me his 'hand-me-down iPhone 6, and now my iPhone X is ever at hand, and Instagram beats a closet any day. I had not seen Ryuijie's work before and loved the image of the tulip--I looked him up and found that he froze his flowers. It's very like the work by Harold Davis when he photographs flowers on a light table.

Interesing and stimulating.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, it's rare to find solid content like you present on your channel. I'd just like to ask you to show the example pictures in the net videos a bit slower, so that we can better appreciate the quality of the images that you carefully chose. Cheers!

Software Gymnastics...lol..love it Thank you

Binge watching tonight .

This was great! I don't often slow down enough to think about direction, quality, color or mood of lighting.....I just know that I either like something or I don't. Question: I am dealing with a lot of smoke in the air from wildfires. Any tips on White Balance? (other than experimenting, which I plan to do beginning tomorrow!) How can I use the smoke to my advantage?

Awesome video, very enjoyable and educational. John Pouw NZ

madam u do very simple but deep keep it up

Call me wrong, there is never wrong light. Let me explain. First I don't shoot with a flash unless I am shooting people. So to put this in context I am talking about street and landscapes primarily. I see light as a challenge to find a way to highlight a subject and tell a story. Light that may make a landscape flat and boring makes me look deeper into a scene. A subject hiding in a shadow or peaking out of one for example. Light constantly changes. Which means I can tell the story differently every time and still be honest in telling it. I am simply the scribe to the moment. My goal is to present the moment in a way that makes others pause and take in the scene and sense something deeper than the daily grind. There is never a wrong time to photograph. Knowledge, tools, and a good storytelling are, as I see it, the keys to good and great images. Ultimately if I like the image I am happier for having made the effort. If someone else likes it is simply bonus points.

I thank you for your content, it has helped me a lot in my process... maybe you could place the ig link or the website of each photographer? thank you, greetings from Colombia

I am struggling with procrastination for fear of creating terrible images. It is paralysing. And I’m mourning what I could be creating. Your video on quitting photography popped up in my notifications and I initially saw it as an omen and hesitated to click on it. I never view suggested videos. But for some reason I clicked on it, and I’m so glad I did. I am putting immense pressure on myself and losing sight of my joy for creating. I am currently trying to figure out how to create some professional looking product images without professional lighting. Instead of experimenting, I’m avoiding. Controlled lighting is my nemesis. I have always worked using natural or ambient light. Even then I don’t think my confidence in understanding light has been there. Shocking considering I received a 1st class degree in photography. This video felt like a nudge. I want to find joy in experimenting and lose fear in mistakes. Any wise words or advice if you have time would be very uplifting. Thank you

Great video Alex! do u have examples of bad lighting?

Software gymnastics 😊

HELP?! I have issue with dynamics. Eg; if I’m trying to get a good exposure for a brightly lit sky AND the tree line below. Sometimes, when I expose for the sky, I get an unexpected and wonderful siloette of that tree line and that’s great but, most often it doesn’t work out and is incredibly frustrating. Help?🙏🏻😬✌🏻

👍

❤️👍👍👍👍👍🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

I have a question: I sometimes photograph other peoples art work, just for myself; do you think it's a bad habit?

Great video 👍!

I am gradually watching the whole series and it's all basic and yet so well thought out and transmitted down to us watchers. All info like this that makes us rethink things is so good for us as photographers! Thank you!

0:36 “light is the mother of photography” Actually photography is a Greek word… In Greek we say φωτογραφία….φωτό = photo and means light, φως. So there’s light in the word photography.

Light? Damn, here in UK you got overcast nearly every bloody day. It's depressing.

I like this guy because he is not a young Instagram photographer with the cliche photo of a woman on the beach streching her arm bacwards to her partner...

Unfortunately everyone perceives light differently, just because of biology. Most people are partially colour blind, in the sense that not everyone can differentciate every tone of shade. Same goes for light effects as a whole? Where you may perceive a dozen or so tones, my physiology only perceives half of those tones at best. On the other and of the spectrum, my night sight is almost perfect. How's yours? There's always a trade off.

Please insert indonesian sub

It was very confusing, three times I thought you were winding up the video.

I totally respect this along with all your videos but it just seems over my head..I take nice photos but they’re not artistic like these are.

If you haven’t experience any enlightenment watching this video you probably can’t even read this .

the world would be incredibly bleak if only cats got changed by lighting