Lensbaby Lens Hacks

With Ute Reckhorn

Series Part 3:

OMNI Filters and Natural Light

A question that often comes up in my workshops is about the way I use colors in my images, and how the natural light I use influences those colors. In this blogpost I want to talk about the importance of understanding light, how it changes during the day and how you can best use it to your advantage with the Lensbaby wands. Knowledge about the temperature of light during different times of the day is critical to successful outdoor and natural light photography. But the effective use of prisms requires solid knowledge about quality, direction and temperature of light.

This blog post is part of my series “Lensbaby Lens Hacks”. I’ve started this series to address some of your questions and share tips and ideas to inspire you to dust off your lens and OMNI Filters and create your own magical work.

Now, let’s look at how the temperature and look of light changes over the course of a day.

1. Golden hour: Sunrise and sunset

It is no secret that the best light for photography is around one hour before and after sunrise and sunset. We call this light golden hour and it renders light in a magical, soft way. So your choice for best light is between getting up early or staying late when it comes to eye catching colors in your images. No matter if you are into landscape, flower or portrait photography, the same rules apply.

For this article I took a picture every hour in my kitchen between sunrise and sunset to show you how the quality of the light keeps changing over the course of one day. At Golden Hour, OMNI Filters reflect rich colors because the sunlight is warmer. A tip for OMNI Filters at this time of day is not to shoot directly into the sun, but rather face a little bit away to let the wands subtly bring the sunlight back in.

2. Midday

Over the course of the next few hours until early afternoon the light gets more intense and colors start looking washed out. This kind of light is cold and not my favorite. If you going on a trip and plan to take pictures, this is a good time to take a nap and charge your batteries instead of taking pictures. If you have no other choice but to take pictures around lunchtime and the sun is out, try to use light and shadow for dramatic pictures or shade for portraits. OMNI Filters at this time of day tend to reflect the washed-out colors in photos, and create white reflections like they did in the pictures below. Have a look at my kitchen around noon to understand what I mean when I say the colors look less saturated. I added a prism to each picture to make the effect more visible.

3. Afternoon light

Now the colors are coming back and the light gets a tad warmer again. It’s much more appealing to me, but still not my favorite light. Ideal OMNI Filters for this time of day are the foil and colorful ones, since they bring something interesting into the photo and contrast the bland light. Conversely, the crystal wands do little to make the photo more interesting for this kind of light and make the photo look more washed out.

4. Golden hour

This time of the day is a photographer’s dream come true. The colors are warm and intense and shooting against the sun can create the most magical pictures. My kitchen does not have any direct sunlight during these hours so the effect of the time of day is not as easy to see, but the light is still warmer and less harsh than during noon hours. OMNI Filters at this time can be used similarly to during morning Golden Hour.

5. Blue hour

(up to 20 minutes before and after sunset)

During this time many photographers pack their stuff and leave the scene. Looking at this indoor shot of my kitchen you could think that’s the right thing to do. But when it comes to portraits, landscape or OMNI Filter photography that light is fascinating, and definitely something worth trying out. Instead of golden or white light that all other hours of the day have, Blue Hour allows for pink and purple-y hues that can be truly beautiful. This is also the time when crystal wands work best, as they reflect the beautiful colors. They are able to capture the sparse sunlight that is left after the sun has set unlike any other filter and let you create something really special!

If you want to find out more about the use of OMNI Filters and prisms in your photography join me in my upcoming class “OMNI Filter Unplugged” at Gather Academy. Class starts 5/24 and we still have a few spots left. Also, don’t miss my giveaway on Instagram. You can win an OMNI Creative Filter System, a year of access to our 365 community project at Gather Academy and a seat in my brand-new workshop!

Lensbaby Lens Hacks Part 1: Omni Filter

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