The Language of Light

Light reflects off of all objects that you see around you. You can play this up with camera flash (artificial light) or natural light.
Positive and negative space have a lot to deal with light because it shapes the object you're trying to capture. If there is more negative space, it's going to look like there is less of your object. For example, this picture of these two boys. The only light source in this picture is from the electronic device they're holding. This is a perfect example of using artificial light to shape the main focus of the picture, leaving the rest all negative space. And if there is more positive space, you're going to be able to see most or all of your subject.

Now we can jump into natural light, my absolute favorite! I always play off of natural light because I'm not a big fan of using a flash. The sun is your biggest, most useful tool! Depending on what time of day it is, you'll always get a different photo. In the morning and sunset it's soft and golden, mid-day it's bright and intense, and before and after sunrise/sunsets it's dark and colorful. The best time to shoot is basically any other time than the middle of the day. When you try to shoot mid-day, you can loose detail from intense highlights and shadows, but it is possible. Anything is possible. Here are two examples of my own photos using natural light. Note that they are straight from my camera so they're unedited. 

You can also tell the emotional tone of the picture through how bright or dark the photo is. So if someone wants to capture sadness, it's usually not something very bright. The same as if someone wanted the tone of their photo to be happy, it would normally be something bright and upbeat. 

 For example, the top photo of my friend (model) Sarah. The way I positioned her face so the light hit on the more interesting places like the tops of her cheeks, edges of her nose, and the one half of her eye was to create a tone of mystery. 

You can tell stories by how you portray light in your photos. Once you understand the language of light, you can always create a sound photo because lighting is the most important thing in photography. Without light, we would be left in the dark with nothing to capture.