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    Facts of Light: The Qualities of Light Every Photographer Needs to Know
    Facts of Light: The Qualities of Light Every Photographer Needs to Know
    Facts of Light: The Qualities of Light Every Photographer Needs to Know
    Ebook121 pages57 minutes

    Facts of Light: The Qualities of Light Every Photographer Needs to Know

    By Terry Thibeau

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    About this ebook

    This book is written in simple terms to help identify the seven qualities of light every photographer needs to know. This knowledge will help elevate your photography and allow you to create the best possible images more effectively and predictably with far greater success than before.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateMay 24, 2016
    ISBN9781514491386
    Facts of Light: The Qualities of Light Every Photographer Needs to Know
    Author

    Terry Thibeau

    Terry Thibeau has specialized in commercial illustration photography since graduating with a bachelor of arts from Brooks Institute of Photography (Santa Barbara, California) in 1987. Although not a native, Terry has claimed New Orleans as his home since 1991 and has serviced the Gulf Coast community with international award-winning photography for various commercial venues, including antiques, food, jewelry, sports, casinos, and local business industries. He is best known for his style of lighting in every venue. Light to Terry is the art and science of photography and can be defined in seven luminous qualities observed in natural and enhanced lighting settings. Capturing light to convey mood and emotion, photography brings you beyond the visual senses and transcends time. www.terryt.com

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      Book preview

      Facts of Light - Terry Thibeau

      THE SEVEN QUALITIES OF LIGHT

      T HIS BOOK IS directed to photographers with SLR (single-lens reflex), DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) and ILC (interchangeable lens) cameras who want to improve the quality of their photography. Photographers who use point-and-shoot cameras, twin-lens reflex cameras, range finders, mirrorless, and view cameras will also benefit from reading this book. It’s not so much about the camera that makes a great photo. It’s about the light. There are books for photographers that talk about light and light qualities for photographers, but they do not recognize all the qualities of light, which was one of the inspirations for writing this book. Unless otherwise noted, all the photos shown in this book were made by the author using manual exposure shooting mode with either a single-lens reflex (SLR) or a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera. Travel photography is one of the most popular types of photography and, certainly, one of the author’s favorites. Here’s a breakdown of visible light used to make photographs.

      These are the seven qualities of light:

      Time

      Brightness

      Direction

      Distance

      Size

      Shape

      Color

      Time

      Sunlight is the reason we have time. Without light, there is no time as we have come to know it. How long does the sunlight we see stay in the exact same position as it is from the time we first see it? Not long. It changes its direction (relative position), brightness, distance, size, shape, and color. The sun is a constant light source but because the earth rotates continually, the sunlight appears to change its relative position in the sky slowly all day, effecting brightness, direction, distance, size, shape, and color.

      tower%20sundial%208056.tif

      Tower Sundial Camera: DSLR Lens: 17–35 mm @ 17 mm ISO: 200

      Shutter: 1/1000th Aperture: f/8

      Brightness

      Sunlight is brighter when it’s overhead because it is traveling through fewer particles, less atmosphere than when it’s near the horizon. We can sometimes look at the sun when it’s obscured by the earth’s atmosphere, especially when it’s near the horizon, leading us to direction. Where is the sun relative to your position on earth? If you move, the direction of the sun is now different from where you were previously.

      Direction

      Thanks to the earth’s atmosphere, we can see where the sunlight is coming from moments before the sun itself appears above the horizon at sunrise. We can see the light reflecting off Earth’s atmospheric particles. The two times of day that are sometimes referred to as the best times of day for taking pictures or making photographs are sunrise and sunset. Representations of those magical times through photographs and other art mediums have been enjoyed and shared by billions.

      Distance

      How far away is the sun? It is ninety-three million miles away, according to most sources. Obviously, you can’t move the sun, so what does distance have to do with light? It matters mostly when using artificial light. The inverse-square law comes into effect. It states that the intensity of illumination changes inversely with the square of the subject’s light source distance. In other words, if you move a light source twice as far away from your subject than its previous position, its brightness becomes a quarter of its brightness before moving it. With artificial light, distance affects brightness, size, and the rate of fall-off. It also affects contrast.

      Size

      Size matters. The size of the sun remains fairly constant to us (appearing larger when it’s closer to the horizon because the earth’s atmosphere distorting the light particles). Clouds also change the size of sunlight, spreading it out larger and wider than its original size and shape. A completely overcast day produces a light source that reaches from horizon to horizon, whereas man-made lights are rather small by comparison. Artificial light sources are available in different sizes, shapes, colors, and brightness. The size of a light source relative to the size of the subject being illuminated affects the contrast on and around that subject. Therefore, contrast is a product of the size and distance of the light source relative to the size of the subject.

      Shape

      The sun is a sphere but appears to us as a disk. Clouds change the shape of the sun when they appear between the sun and earth. The flame from a candle can be teardrop shaped. Fire takes on many different shapes and colors. Artificial lights come in many different shapes and sizes. Automobiles have had many, many different sizes and shapes of lights over the years.

      Color

      ROYGBIV—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. All the colored light mixed together makes white light. Black is the absence of light. The color of light can be measured in degrees Kelvin. If you heat a black body, it glows and changes color as it gets hotter and is measured in degrees Kelvin. Artificial lights come in many different colors. Daylight, which is what our eyes consider as white light, is 5,500 degrees Kelvin.

      A color checker chart is used to determine proper exposure and color balance.

      Color%20Checker%202250.tif
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