Available Light

Shooting with Available Light is the technique of using the existing lighting conditions (interior or exterior) to create an exposure in your camera based on the lighting conditions occurring at the moment. To shoot Available Light means to work without adding active lighting instruments to the scene in front of the camera. Shooting 'Available' as it's sometimes referred to, can often involve techniques of modifying light sources such as passive bounce materials or creating negative fill with grip equipement. 

A camera requires light in order to expose an image. The most easily accesible form of lighting available to a camera is daylight. The concept of Available Light is the oldest method for producing an image as the first photographs were taken using daylight to expose an image on the low-sensitivity imagers of the day. When using  modern cameras, there are a few concepts that should be understood in order to allow you control of your image when shooting Available Light. 

Neutral Density Filters (ND)

ND Filters are built into some camera bodies and some lenses have provisios to add them to the front or even back of the lens barrel. Use of an ND filter for a camera acts like sunglasses do to the human eye. When shooting outdoors the amount of light enteriing the camera can easily cause an over exposed image if your intention is to use specific settings for the aperture and shutter. ND filters will effetively knock down the total amount of light entering the camera lens without causing a shift in color or quality of light entering the lens (some ND filters do add a small amount of green tint that may need to be corrrected). 

Aperture and Depth of Feild

When you want to control your Depth of Field and specifically want to capture the look of shallow depth of field when shooting outdoors, you will need to set your lens at a wide aperture (a low number f-stop such as f-2.8). 

Shutter and Motion Blur

If you want to retain a normal look to objects that move within your camera frame and you don't want to have subjets in motion appear to be unnaturaly crisp (normal motion blur) then you'll need to be sure your shutter is set within a normal range. 

Link to 'passive bounce' above.

Link to 'negative fill' above. 

Link to 'Active Lighting' above

Link to 'Passive Lighting' above