Photography: Light in Photography

The Importance of light in Photography

A photograph simply records patterns of light, colour, and shade; lighting is all-important in controlling the image. In many cases even illumination is desired to give an accurate rendition of the scene. In other cases the direction, brightness, and colour of light are manipulated for effect.

The Importance of light in Photography. Lighting is a key factor in creating a successful image. ... Therefore it is necessary to control and manipulate light correctly in order to get the best texture, vibrancy of colour and luminosity on your subjects.

Lighting is a key factor in creating a successful image. Lighting determines not only brightness and darkness, but also tone, mood and the atmosphere. Therefore it is necessary to control and manipulate light correctly in order to get the best texture, vibrancy of colour and luminosity on your subjects. By distributing shadow and highlights accurately, you can create stylized professional looking photographs.

A single strobe, a lighting modifier, and a couple of reflectors give you plenty of options. Nevertheless, many photographers prefer the lighting precision and greater sense of depth possible with a multi-light setup. ... Main Light. The main or key light is the primary and, usually, the strongest light.

Light is the most important part of every photo we take, it's what creates everything that we see and affects how it appears. Understanding a little bit about it can really help to improve the quality of our photos and videos.

Natural Light

Light is what allows us to see. It is what shapes and colors every object we can see with out eyes, it creates depth, mood, and color. The word photography comes from “photo” or “light” and “graphy” or “writing”, so photography essentially means “light writing” .The objective of this tutorial is to learn how to see light and use it to our advantage and create interesting and exciting photos. At the end of this tutorial you should have a basic understanding of the following fundamentals of light:

1. Exposure - how bright a scene is and how it effects our image.
2. Quality - how focused or diffuse light is.
3. Color - the color of the light in an image.
4. Direction - where is the light coming from?
5. Highlight - the brightest part of the image
6. Shadow - the darkest part of the image.
7. Contrast - The difference between the bright part of an image and the dark part of an image

How we see

When we see an object we are seeing the light reflected off of it. Sunlight contains light of every color and when it illuminates an object we are seeing certain colors of light reflected by that object that then travel into our eyes. Red objects reflect red light, and green objects reflect green light. Dark objects reflect less light than bright objects. For the purposes of this lesson the most important thing we need to know is that what we see is created by light reflecting off of everything and traveling into out eyes. A photograph is created by capturing the light that is reflecting off of our scene and traveling into our camera, where it is captured by film or a digital sensor.

There is at least one entire field of physics devoted to the study of light and how it behaves, however this type of in depth study is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Basics of Light

1. Exposure

Exposure is the overall brightness or darkness of a scene. A neutral or normal exposure is one which creates an image that looks similar to how we see it with our eyes. A typical scene during the day has about 10 stops of light in it, and the average high end DSLR captures between 5 and 7 stops. Our eyes can take in somewhere around 20 stops. What this means for us is that what we see in real life is not what we get in the camera or on the screen or in print.

2. Quality

As well as being light or dark, light can also be soft or hard. This is primarily a function of how large the light source is compared to the subject. A large light source close to the subject creates a very soft light with soft shadows if any, the light wraps around the subject. A small bright light far from our subject creates a hard light with hard well defined shadows.
Sunlight may at first appear to be a small light source, however it is both small and soft as the earth’s atmosphere diffuses a lot of it, and it also tends to bounce and reflect off of lighter or bright objects. Fog and cloud also do a lot to diffuse and soften sunlight. While a single ray of sunlight in the forest can be fairly hard, full late afternoon sun in a brighter location (snow, concrete parking lot, dusty dirt lot) is a lot softer. Part of this has to do with the angle the sunlight travels through the atmosphere. In the morning and evening the sun is at a low angle and travels through significantly more of the atmosphere than it does at mid day, this helps to make early and late light a lot softer than midday light.

Evening light in developed areas of the world is also softer than morning light as air pollution builds during the day and helps to diffuse the sunlight further. This pollution normally dissipates a lot at night when temperatures are cooler and the world is asleep, making morning light crisper and cleaner.

arly morning light

3. Color

Sunlight varies in color greatly and this color is measured as temperature in degrees Kelvin. Normal daylight film used to be calibrated at about 5600K which produced a nice image in the middle of the day but was much warmer (towards the red side) in the morning and evening. The diffusing effect of the atmosphere also colors daylight, and normally daylight can vary from a warm 4000K in the late evening to a cool 6500K on a cloudy day. 6500K is considered to be the actual color of daylight without the effect of the atmosphere. Tungsten lightbulbs put out a light that is really orange at around 3200K and fluorescent bulbs can now vary greatly in color. Note that when you are adjusting the color of a RAW photo with the color slider it makes changes opposite to what you would think initially. Moving the slider to a lower number makes images appear cooler, while a higher number makes images appear warmer.

4. Direction

Light travels in a direction for the most part. It may be hard or soft, but the sun is a single light source and that light travels in straight lines radiating out from it. It may bounce and reflect off of things, but try to keep in mind that it has direction. Because of this things can look quite different depending on which direction we view them from, they can be front lit, back lit, or side lit. And everything in between. Remember that this applies to all light sources as well and not just the sun.
We can use natural objects to block or redirect (reflect) the light and change it’s direction, or we can place objects ourselves. 

5. Highlight

The highlight is the brightest part of an image. When we are dealing with a single light source this is normally a reflective surface or object facing the light source.

6. Shadow

Shadow is the darkest part of an image. When we are dealing with a single light source this is normally a non-reflective object or surface facing away from the light source or in the shadow of something else.

7. Contrast

Contrast in an image is the measurement of the difference between the highlights and the shadows. If there is a lot of range between the two there is very little contrast, if there is little range between the two then an image is said to have high contrast. Images shot on a cloudy day usually are low in contrast, and images shot in the bright sun are generally high in contrast.

Things to consider when shooting
1. See the light - What does it look like?

Learn to see what the light actually looks like before you shoot. Take a look around, is it bright or dark? Where is the light coming from? Are there shadows and highlights? How is the contrast?

Take the time to evaluate the scene you are shooting and look at it from different angles, not just for composition but for light as well. If you’re shooting front lit in an area of high contrast i.e. bright highlights and dark shadows, it may be very difficult to see anything, try looking at it from a backlit angle.

Look at large areas of light and shadow and see if you can use them compositionally. Plants and greenery and other translucent objects often look better backlit.

2. Control the light - Can you make the light work for you?

Can you use a scrim to block unwanted light, or a reflector to add some light? Sometimes it doesn’t take much to change average light into good light. The easiest way is usually to choose a different time of day when the light works for you. Early morning or late afternoon/evening traditionally has the best light, but sometimes there is less than an hour of the day when the light might be perfect for what you need. Light between two trees or buildings for example.

Positioning Light

The source your light is coming from has a huge impact on how it falls on your subject. Light originating from behind the camera, and pointing directly onwards gives you very flat lighting. It will also cause shadows to fall in the background of the image. Side lighting produces a far more interesting light, as it shows the shape of the subject much more and cast it in partial shadow giving it a more dramatic look. Rembrandt lighting is an effective common example of this lighting type. Lighting sourced from the back of your subject gives an alternative effect. This time most of the light is hitting the side of the subject making it brighter, which creates a more distinctive and dramatic photo.

Shaping Light

Adding a diffuser to your light source can reduce glare and harsh shadows and also diminishes blemishes on your subject. It gives your artificial light a softer more natural looking result. You can diffuse light numerous ways. Using soft boxes, umbrellas and sheer heatproof material work really well to achieve this result.

Manipulating Light

Light can be manipulated to fall on a particular area of interest on your subject. This can be achieved through the use of diffusers and reflectors. Collapsible Reflectors shape sunlight or bounce flash light with on area you’d prefer to highlight. Spot lights can also be covered in light shapers that enable you to have more control over the direction the light will fall and how broad the light spans.

Once you’ve achieved the best possible result with your lighting setup, you can also create a more effects through Adobes light room. This software has the capability to enhance and improve your digital photographs. Giving you the options to change colour balance and temperature, improving tones, sharpening, reducing noise, cropping, and even converting to black-and-white. Lighting can be the difference between a breath-taking photo and a poor one. Mastering how to use light to your advantage and getting the best possible result out of your setup will also separate your work from your contemporaries and put you on the path to achieving professional looking imagery.