Is Punxsutawney Phil Secretly A Great Photographer?

Is Punxsutawney Phil secretly a great photographer? I can't say for certain as I've never seen his portfolio. However, I can say that Phil understands light in ways you must if you're going to create great photos. What do I mean? Phil understands light and he can teach you how to better understand it as well.

Understanding Light Like Punxsutawney Phil

Punxsutawney Phil understands that direct light from the sun creates harsh shadows. Conversely, he knows that overcast days diffuse the light in such a way that shadows can be very faint, practically nonexistent in some cases. This is Punxsutawney Phil's secret. The most famous groundhog in the world doesn't even need to open his eyes to tell you what the next six months will look like, he just needs to hear the forecast for February 2nd.

Punxsutawney Phil knows that if it's overcast he has no chance of seeing his shadow. 

The Punxsutawney Phil Rule

Thanks to Punxsutawney Phil I've developed this easy to remember rule for anyone taking one of my photography classes. I named it the Punxsutawney Phil Rule, or the Punxsutawney Rule. This way it's easier to remember. Here it is:

When compared to our cameras we can see more details in deep shadows and bright highlights at the same time. This means that, sometimes, your camera is going to struggle to take the photo you want it to.

The ability to see these details is called dynamic range. Just as singers have a range of notes they can hit our eyes have a range of details we can see from dark to light. The same is true of our cameras. However, our cameras have a more limited range than we do.

Dynamic Range and Punxsutawney Phil

Punxsutawney Phil can help us remember about dynamic range. When we see our shadow, the more defined and darker it is, the more contrast we've got in our scene. That means following Phil's rule, we need to decide where our subject falls from dark to light.

Why Punxsutawney Phil disagrees with the camera

Punxsutawney Phil will disagree with the camera if our subject doesn't belong right in the middle between black and white. Phil knows if our subject is very bright our camera may not capture all of their details. Too if our subject is too dark and the scene is otherwise too bright, the camera is not going to expose our subject well.

Punxsutawney Phil's Photography Challenge

Let's put the Punxsutawney Phil's rule into practice with this photography challenge. We'll improve our skills as photographers and learn to see light better. Ultimately we'll learn to make Punxsutawney Phil's secret our own.

Our Challenge

Our first challenge is as follows. The subject here is a crow digging in a snow drift on a sunny day. Crows are quite dark but we really want to capture as much detail it their feathers. The camera will always try to find a balance between everything in the scene. This means it's going to try to capture detail right in the middle between the bright snow and the dark crow. However, it's not going to be able to do it. It's not going to get all of the detail between the two. Therefore we need to tell the camera what is more important.

Meeting Our Challenge

To meet this challenge we need to understand the crow is the most important thing. Those dark details in the crow are close to black. As a result we need to tell the camera to capture an extra bit of light so we see those dark details. We don't want to go too far we're or we'll lose the details in the snow. That said, the crow is more important so sometimes we need to make sacrifices. If we want to see the crow we need to over-expose our image.

Use Punxsutawney Phil's Photography Secret To Become A Better Photographer

Now that you've learned it you too can use Punxsutawney Phil's photography secret to become a better photographer. If you want to know more about Punxsutawney Phil I strongly suggest you visit Punxsutawney for Groundhog's Day on Feb. 2nd. It's always an incredible time. I've been several times and loved it each time. Punxsutawney is not too far of a drive from Pittsburgh where I teach photography and offer event and portrait photography.

Check out my other articles that will help you learn photography. I've got a great collection of them on the blog. They're also collected on my free photography resources page. If you have any great photography tips, from woodchucks or anyone else really please contact me to let me know. Also you should sign up for my monthly newsletter which is packed full of great info just like this.