Lighting What you need to know

3 types of artificial light Ambient – what is naturally occurring in the room Portable lighting – usually electronic flash (you carry it with you) Studio lighting

Ambient lighting This can occur as natural or artificial lighting and is the most difficult to control. You are working with the light that already exists in a scene or space. Artificial – lamps, candles, fire Natural – light from the sun through a window or sky light

Portable You bring the light Earliest form was flash powder – highly flammable metal magnesium. Delivers an instant burst of brilliant blue-white light when ignited. Hazardous indoors. Flash bulb, flash bars (rotated), then electronic flash (uses a capacitor)

Studio lighting Greatest amount of control. Can remove or add units and accessories. Diffusers, reflectors, soft boxes Typically electronic or incandescent and sometimes natural.

Studio lighting cont. Incandescent – referred to as hot lights, similar to standard bulbs (floods need tungsten white balance), low cost, normally mounted in metal reflectors. These lights get very hot (hence the name hot lights).

Studio cont. Electronic studio flash units – don’t get hot because only on for a fraction of a second. Many photographers believe they are harder to use because effects can not be observed right away. Exposure readings can not be read in traditional ways either.

Light falloff The farther the subject is from light source the less brightly it will be illuminated. Can be stated using the inverse-square law: The illumination provided by a point source of light will vary inversely as the square of the distance from the source. (as light moves further away from its source it spreads to cover a wider area and so you get a weaker illumination.