A northern light - the light from the northern part of the sky, not Aurora borealis.
In the days before electricity, the Sun was the only one source of light for photographers. The Sun lighting caused problems with tarry shadows and change of direction during the day. In their studios, photographers eagerly used the light of the northern part of the sky, where the Sun was not peeked at. The studios were located on the top floors of the buildings and the lighting was regulated through a system of roof windows and curtains.
The light from the northern part of the sky is diffuse, but not flat. It doesn’t create a glare or reflection. The light source is generally very wide, resulting in excellent detail in deep shadows.
In modern studios, you can achieve this type of lighting using electric lamps.
But, what about outside the studio, in the field or town?
Of course, you can go to places with high latitude and enjoy the natural, diffuse light of the sun, which does not set in the far northern hemisphere in summer.
I tried to find this type of light in the city at night.
The night lighting of city streets and buildings is multi-point. This already gives a large width of the light source and looks like light from the northern part of the sky. I looked for scenes where the city is lit by numerous street lamps and reflections from the walls, or a wide glow above the city in the night sky. I tried to take my frames, where these light sources do not appear directly, or are minimized by distance, I got interesting effects - in my opinion, of course. In addition, I used possibilities to apply existing different color temperatures of city lighting. Interesting for me were the shadows cast by multiple light sources.
