Q 2.5 - Exploring Lighting Types

Digital Photography

Mrs. Canfield

with

2.5

Exploring Lighting Types & The Power of Directional Lighting

We'll be starting at 10:40 AM.

Agenda

• Reminders & Recap
• Exploring Ligting Types
• The Power of Directional Lighting

THIS WEEK

4/22

4/20

4/21

4/23

4/24

Lesson 2.7

Lesson 2.4

Lesson 2.5

Lesson 2.6

Flex Day!

Live Lesson! - Review Photo Editing Basics - Review Assignments - Studio Day

Live Lesson! - Review/ Preview Assignments - Egg Activity - Studio Day

Exploring Lighting Types, Sources, & Qualities/ The Power of Directional Lighting

Exploring Four Lighting Techniques/ Assignment 4: Lighting Techniques

Attend or watch the recording!

Attend or watch the recording!

RECAP

In our last lesson you learned:

• Framing outlines the subject with an element inside the image frame to draw attention to it.

• Simplicity eliminates unnecessary elements within the image frame

Blurred background

Plain background

Two Toned background

• Symmetry is when one half of an image mirrors the other half. It creates a sense of balance, order, and harmony.

REMEMBER

Link to Assignment

These need to be recent photos that YOU took for this assignment.

Lesson 2.5

Exploring Lighting Types

Overview

Objectives

Vocab

• IDENTIFY different sources of light and the quality of light.

• Relate Kelvin temperature of lighting sources to white balance.

• IDENTIFY white balance presents and light color temperature.

• Match the light source to its appropriate color temperature

• artificial light

• hard light
• incandescent light
• light source

• light color tempature
• light quality
• natural light
• soft light
• specular light
• white balance

"Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you're worth, and you will know the key to photography."

George Eastman American entrepreneur and founder of Eastman Kodak Company

Intro to Light in Photogaphy

Light is the visible energy for sight and includes light sources like sunlight or lamps. Without light, photography wouldn't exist, as it illuminates scenes for cameras to capture.

Light is a key factor in creating a successful photograph. It determines the brightness and darkness of an image and sets the tone, mood, and ambiance of the subject.

Light has an extraordinary power to convey the emotions in your images to resonate with the viewer. The key to mastering photography is to focus on lighting techniques.

One of the most important elements of photography is LIGHT!

Light allows us to capture images that convey a mood and emotions. Understanding light and how to control it, is understanding photography!

Types of

Light Sources

Natural Light Sources

Artificial Light Sources

All light is emitted by a source, most commonly a heat source or a thermal source. There are many types of light sources, but they can all be categorized into one of TWO categories:

Natural Light

Sources

Natural light is ambient light emitted by natural light sources instead of a camera flash or another artificial light. Natural light sources include the sun, moon, and stars. Sun is a primary source of light. It emits visible light, infrared light, and ultraviolet light. Natural light changes from a yellow to a blue tone throughout the day and cannot be controlled or manipulated.

Artificial Light

Sources

Light can also be produced artificially by humans. Artificial light is widely used in homes, commercial buildings, and a variety of other settings. They are available in different shapes, sizes, colors, and brightness levels. Artificial light can be fully controlled by manipulating its color tone, intensity, quality, and direction. Sources include flashes, strobe lights, fire, and permanent lights.

FIRE

Is considered artificial because it's human-made.

Types of

Artificial Light

Sources

• Incandescent light sources
• Luminescent light sources
• Gas discharge light sources

Artificial light sources are categorized into one of three broad categories:

Incandescent Light

Sources

Examples of incandescent light sources include fire, candles, and incandescent lamps.

Incandescent light sources emit light when heated to a high temperature. Visible and infrared light are produced during the process. These incandescent lights range from the common light bulb to large tungsten hot lights used in photography studios and movie sets. Incandescent lights emit a warmer, more yellow color tone compared to natural daylight.

Luminescent Light

Luminescent Light

Examples of luminescent light sources include fluorescent lighting tubes and electric light bulbs.

Sources

Luminescent light sources, such as fluorescent tube lights, are used in most buildings and offices. They produce a cool white or bluish light tone. Luminescent lights are NOT commonly used in photography, but shooting in settings where they are used can create challenges.

Gas Discharge Light

Sources

When electricity passes through certain gasses at very low pressure, it produces a neon light. These are called gas discharge light sources. Examples of gas discharge sources include neon lamps and sodium lamps.

Types of Light Quality

Light has distinct qualities that create different visual moods in a photograph. Lighting quality refers to how the light source, either natural or artificial, is adjusted for a subject. The position and quality of light affect the clarity and sharpness, tone, contrast, emotion, and texture of your photograph, as well as other factors.

Types of Light

Quality

The TWO factors that determine the quality of light are the SIZE of the light source in proportion to the subject & the DISTANCE between the light source & the subject.

There are FOUR main types of light quality:

• HARD light
• SOFT light
• SPECULAR light
• DIFFUSED light

Overview of Quality of Light

HARD LIGHT

HARD LIGHT

Hard light is created when the light source is SMALLER and FARTHER from the subject. Hard light is a bright light that casts distinct harsh shadows and draws attention to a specific part of a photograph. Hard light adds dimension & depth to your images. It results in a high contrast that creates a strong sense of drama and gives your photos an edgy and gritty look. An example of a natural source of hard light is direct sunlight. Although the sun is small and extremely far away, the light can be very intense. An artificial source of hard light is a camera flash.

The transition between the light and the shadow is harsh and defined due to the bright lighting that the sun provides. This results in a high-contrast look.

SOFT LIGHT

The transition between the light and the shadows is more gradient and much smoother, resulting in a low-contrast image.

The larger and nearer the light source is to the subject, the softer the light will be. Soft light is flattering, it casts SOFT shadows that are bright yet balanced and not sharply defined. Smaller and finer details do not appear in shadows, so soft light results in low-contrast images. An example of an artificial soft light source is a lamp covered with a lampshade used in a home. A natural source of soft light would be the sunlight that comes in through a window.

Soft Lighting

Soft lighting is commonly used for portrait photography, as it smooths skin, hides acne, and brings out the light in a subject's eyes. It is widely used in fashion photography, travel photography, and food photography as well.

LARGE Soft Light

The light sources emit DISFUSED light that is LARGER and CLOSER. This spreads out the light and softens it.

23

Presentation title

LARGE Soft Lighting Set up

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Presentation title

HARD Lighting

SOFT Lighting

• Bright light & strong shadows
• High contrasts between light and shadow
• Creates a sense of drama and depth

• More flattering
• Soft, light shadows
• Low contrasts
• Transitions between light & shadows is more gradual

Diffused Lighting

Light passing through semi-transparent materials gets diffused, creating uniform lighting. Diffused light differs from soft light; the former distributes light evenly, which creates soft shadows. For instance, clouds in front of the sun diffuse light, as does a sheer curtain.

Clouds diffuse the light

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Soft Light

Hard Light

Diffused Light

Specular Lighting

Specular light creates strong highlights and shadows in a photograph. The center may be very bright, while the edges fade into darkness. Think of a spotlight. For instance, a flashlight illuminates the center of an object brightly. Observe the image: the center light is strong but smudges at the edges, making the subject stand out from the background.

intensity of light

Light intensity refers to the brightness level, affecting how your subject stands out. It's influenced by the light source size, intensity, and distance from the subject. Increasing the distance decreases light intensity, while bringing the source closer increases it.

Low Intensity

High Intensity

light color Tempature

Light color temperature determines the characterization of the spectral properties of a light source. Color temperature is measured in standard Kelvin (K) units and is a physical property of light.

Each natural or artificial light source has its own individual color, or 'color temperature, on a scale from red to blue.

• The HIGHER the Kelvin value ,or color temperature, the bluer or cooler the light color. Cool colors tend to recede visually and look 'smaller' in a composition.
• The LOWER the Kelvin value, or color temperature, the warmer the light color.

White Balance

White balance in an image refers to adjusting colors to appear neutral. The human eye adapts well to different lighting, making colors look consistent. Digital cameras, however, can misinterpret colors based on lighting, leading to unnatural color casts in photos.

White Balance Made Easy

White Balance throughout the Day

Using White Balance

Presets

You have learned three basic approaches that you can take to white-balance your images:

• You can set your camera to default– select the auto WB setting and let the camera's electronic brain evaluate the scene to figure out the best white balance settings to use.
• You can look at the color cast and set a preset white balance depending on the lighting conditions (sunny, cloudy, shady, fluorescent, tungsten, or flash).
• You can control the white balance of your images manually by setting the Kelvin temperature scale to a neutral one based on the scene.

For example, if you are shooting on an overcast day, using a lower Kelvin value will help make your images appear bluer. Therefore, to make your images appear more neutral, you will need to use a Kelvin value of around 7000 to 9000K.

WHITE BALANCE PRESET

DSLR cameras correct these color casts by optimizing the color temperature of the scene with the help of preset white balance settings. Auto WB preset (white balance) is a default setting in the camera that automatically corrects the color cast depending on ambient light and the use of flash to compensate for different color temperatures.

White Balance Preset

Daylight/Direct Sunlight preset is indicated by a sun symbol. It's calibrated to set fairly ‘normal' (neutral colors) white balance settings under midday sun. It can be used as a fixed standard for capturing colors exactly as they are in non-standard lighting conditions.

Custom WBor KPreset

FlourescentPreset

TungstenPreset

CloudyPreset

FlashPreset

ShadePreset

The flash of a camera has a cooler tone than direct sunlight and using flash WB mode can warm up your photo and prevent skin tones from turning cold in portraits.

Fluorescent preset is indicated by a glowing tube and warms up your photos by compensating for the cool blue light of fluorescent light bulbs or tubes.

The cloudy preset setting generally warms the colors more than daylight mode. It is good for capturing portraits.

Tungsten preset cools down the color in photos by adding the opposite color.

Shade has a cooler tone than direct sunlight. The shade preset will warm things up and give you more neutral looking skin tones in portraits.

Custom WB or K preset in advanced DSLRs allow users to set the white balance color temperature manually in this mode by adjusting the Kelvin value.

SUMMARY

In the this lesson you learned:

• Artifical Light Sources: Human-made light sources

• Natural Light Sources: Naturally occurring light sources found in nature.

• Hard Lighting: Smaller distant light (sun) that adds dimension & depth to an image by creating contrasts & strong sense of drama.

• Soft Lighting: Larger, closer light that is flattering, it casts SOFT shadows that are bright yet balanced and not sharply defined.

• Direct Sunlight Preset: is calibrated to use neutral colors or fairly normal white balance settings under the midday sun.

Continue on to The Power of Directional Lighting Lesson