Light peeps all the time. Through leaves, branches, windows, doors, think of any opening and the light will peep through. To capture landscapes of peeping light I tend to move out early in the mornings in the winter season.
Winter sets the stage beautifully for such landscapes.
The haze, mist and fog create lovely translucent backdrop for the light rays. It is good to choose a point where you are not facing the sun directly.
The photograph on the right was clicked during one of my jungle safaris, obviously early in the morning.
Just as the golden light creates a welcoming warm atmosphere, peeping light looks equally amazing in black and white photographs. The fog and mist create very bright areas due to their high reflectance. These make the light beams stand out beautifully creating near silhouettes of other subjects. The adjacent photograph was also clicked on University of Pune campus.
The trick to get amazing “peeping light” photographs is to shoot them in aperture priority mode with spot metering. Meter the brightest area of the scene and then expose to one or two stops on the positive side. This technique ensures that you do not kill the shadows.
One can also use the technique in the reverse way by metering the shadow areas, however there is a potential danger of creating unwanted blown out highlights areas.