JPG Magazine: Stories: How To: Liquid Light

How To

Liquid Light

By Sibylle Meder

9 June 2007

Mornings are best, cool ones even better. They've got that mist that works like a magic soft box. Magic, because at some stage there will be a leakage, and without you knowing rays of light will seep through and speckle the water.

Those are the two main effects we are after.

The first one is the haze that gives the impression of air and water as just one. No sharp distinction between the elements anymore. Like in the picture with the yacht sailing off into the mist.

The second one is the "molten metal" look. Of course there's nothing quite like the experience of swimming into a sunset, but photographing one comes pretty close. It seems as if the whole sea (or lake for that matter) had an underwater light bulb that works the glow - even if it is not a submerged light source but reflection on the shiny surface. Blinded you are in any case and the opacity is up.

If you expose here for the lighter bits - which you do anyway if you don't want most of your image burned out - everything that is not glowing takes on that shadow puppet apearance.

Distances are lost in the dark parts of the picture, and whether there is your cat sitting right in front of the lens watching an ocean steamer sail in or a street light at water's egde by the docks - both appear the same size if placed properly.

Since you can't see what's in between cat and lamp, those cut-outs seem a bit like the photograms of Man Ray: scissors, pen and corkscrew happily co-existing, a surreal effect if ever there was one. (See my "Ship of Dreams", the main image of this story, for a rather random collection of fishing net, group of basecap-wearing boys and a mighty boat seemingly running straight into the bulbs of the lantern.)

And like on photograms - which were essentially objects placed on light-sensitive film and exposed without a lens in between - the shape of the silhouettes should be either dead simple (a person, say) or super complex: intricately ornamented buildings, fences, gnarled trees... you name it.

With the reflected light and shadow contrast comes usually monochrome. Which doesn't mean monotone: Sunsets (or -rises) go through a huge spectrum of orange, reds, purples and, yes, blues and you could take dozens of different pictures with the same framing each of them with a different lighting scene and colour tone.

Going back to the first situation - the misty-eyed one - you'll very likely end up with pastel coulours: hues of pink and cream.

Now, if you crave a bit more colour contrast, try finding a garish object for the forground, just far enough in the mist to look like it was wafting out of it, but close enough to provide a splash of red or yellow to balance the modest beige of the rest. (Think: beach umbrellas, boats, balls - whatever comes in brightest hues.)

This contrast of mist (an airy form of water) and colour must be why Himalayan temples - and monks - make for such a great image. (For examples have a look at some of my favourites on the JPG site.http://www.jpgmag.com/people/sibylle/favorites)

Shutter speed is another thing to play with. If you have moving water like waves or waterfall and go for a slightly longer exposure, the effect is, well, misty again. Instead of the "frozen" look of waves at breaking point (the word says it all), the water's edge will now look as if flowing out of the static image, a liquid part of the photo.

Of course those basic rules of light and reflection apply for water in all forms: sea, lake, puddle, rain drop, mist, cloud and steam. The more "solid" the water is, the more reflection. The more wafty it becomes, the more it works like a soft box. In combination with a rising or setting sun and any other source of (coloured) illumination, water will start to shine: a liquid light.

Sibylle Meder

(You can find my website - with some more fine examples of fluid light - here: www.sibyllemeder.net)

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