7/30/2019 Top.10.Lighting.facts

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1. Photography is painting with light.

Light is the most important part of every

photo and creates everything we see and

affects how it appears.

2. The broader the light source, the

softer the light. The narrower the source,

the harder the light. A broad source

lessens shadows, reduces contrast,

suppresses texture. A narrow light source

does the opposite. This is because with a

broader source, light rays hit your subject

from more directions, which tends to fill in

shadows and give more even illmination.

3. The closer the light source, the

softer the light. The farther the source,

the harder the light. This stands to reason:

Move a light closer, and you make it

biggerthat is, borader in relation to your

subject.

Think about the sun, which is something

like 109 times the diameter of the

earthpretty broad! But, at 93 millionmiles away, it casts a very hard light.

4. Difusion scatters light, essentially

making the light source broader and

therefore softer. Clouds and overcast

skies act as diffusionsomething that

scatters light in many directions. On an

overcast day, the entire sky, in effect

becomes a very broad light source.

5. Bouncing light acts as diffusion. Aim

a narrow light source at a broad, matte

surfacesuch as a wall, ceiling, or matte

reflector it not only reflects the light, but

also diffuses it by scattering it over a

wider area.

6. The farther the light source, the

more it falls offgets dimmer on your

subject. The rule says that light falls off

as the square of the distance. Thatsounds complicated, but it isnt really. If

you move a light twice as far from your

subject, you end up with only one-quarter

of the light.In other words, light gets dim

fast when you move it away.

7. LIght falloff can be used to vary the

relationship between the light on your

subject and your background. If you

place a light close to your subject, thefalloff from the subject to the background

will be more pronounced. Move the light

farther from your subject and the back-

ground will be relatively brighter.

8. Frontlighting de-emphasizes texture;

lighting from the side, above, or below

emphasizes it. A portrait photographer

may want to keep the light source close to

the lens to minimize wrinkles, but move

the light to the side when shooting a petto retain the fur texture. Generally, the

greater the angle at which the light is

positioned to the subject, the more texture

is revealed.

9. Shadows create volume. This is how

photographers describe threedimension-

ality, the sense of seeing an image as an

object in space.

10. Light has color, even when it looks

white. This is called color temperature,

and our eye and brain are very adept at

adjusting our perception so that we hardly

notice it. Digital sensors in a camera may

record color casts where our eyes dont

see them.

The Top 10 Photography Lighting Facts You Should Know