Light, which is the entire subject

Photography is the recording of light, and almost every photograph that disappoints was lit badly rather than taken with the wrong camera. The phone in your hand is capable of professional results in good light and incapable of rescuing bad light, and so is a camera costing two hundred thousand rupees.

Learn to see light before anything else: where it comes from, how hard or soft it is, and what colour it is.

Hard light comes from a small or distant source, such as midday sun, and produces sharp shadows and strong contrast. It is dramatic and it is unflattering for faces.

Soft light comes from a large source relative to the subject: an overcast sky, a bright window with the sun not shining directly in, light bounced off a white wall. It is forgiving and it is what most portraits and product photographs want.

The easiest improvement available to anybody is to move the subject next to a window and turn off the room lights. That one change transforms photographs of people, food and products, and it costs nothing.

Direction matters as much as quality. Light from the side shows texture and shape, light from the front flattens, and light from behind creates a silhouette unless you add something in front.

Avoid mixing light sources of different colours, such as a window and a yellow bulb, because the result is hard to correct and looks wrong in a way people notice without naming.