A Play of Light

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There can be no photography without light, but it offers more to experiment with than just that basic need. One of my favourite qualities to play with is translucence. Many flowers and leaves will allow light to pass through them and this can lead to some attractive images.

Despite their apparent density, the purplish-red leaves of the eucomis (pineapple lily) above were able to let light filter through. By luck, I happened to see them at a time when the sun was low-angled but still very strong. The bright light was able to penetrate the leaves, showing a range of reds and yellows that would not have been visible by normal reflected light. I have cropped the image tightly on the leaves to make the colours appear more flame-like.

In my garden, hollyhocks are probably the flowers with the most translucent petals. These petals are especially thin, like fine coloured tissue, and allow light to pass through very easily. The flower above was one of the last on the plant, so by that time the stems were tall and reaching skyward, making it easy to position the camera where the semi-transparency of the flower would emphasise its airy floatiness.

The dahlia, by contrast, was in a shady position, with sunlight reaching the top petals of the flower. Because this was not in my own garden, I was limited in where I could stand. It was disappointing not to be able to get the camera into a position where more of the petals would be lit up, so I’ve cropped the photo to give the upper part of the flower more importance.

My garden doesn’t have a lot of colourful leaves in autumn, but our wisteria can turn a lovely shade of gold when the leaves are backlit by the afternoon sun. These leaves should really have been pruned off the climber in July, but I’m glad I left them because they were ideally placed to make a vivid image. The shadows that you see are from foliage on the far side of the leaves blocking the light. I reckon they add a lot to the photograph, which would have been much less interesting without them.

The last image (of autumn crab apple leaves) makes the same use of shadows. Here the leaves and stems on the right-hand side block the backlighting of the central leaf, adding the focal point of dark shadows on the glowing red.

Playing with translucence is a satisfying way to make photographs more vibrant and richly-coloured. It just needs the cooperation of the sun. There’s not much sunshine around at the moment, but spring will bring more opportunities to experiment with backlighting. Roll on spring!