Light Controls: Understanding Lighting in Photography

Want to know a little more about lighting for your photography? Want to know the foundations of light as it's presented to you in the environment or in the studio?

This article describes the basics of light and how to communicate and understand its characteristics.

There are two methods to control light, directly or indirectly.

Direct Control

Direct control is described as creating absolutely new lighting environments. This element of lighting control appeals to the photographer who wants total control over her photography.

This photographer will precisely create desired lighting effects from a blank canvas, even something that has perhaps not been demonstrated previously. This control is usually constructed in a studio environment.

Indirect Control

Indirect control is using lighting that already exists. This is the photographer who analyzes the environment and responds accordingly. Or it's the photographer who searches or waits for particular lighting characteristics that are desired. This control is usually sought and manipulated in the environment.

Both methods are equally effective, one is not better than the other; they are simply different. There are six visual qualities of light that are common to both direct and indirect control. These are:

1. Brightness

Brightness is the intensity level of radiating or reflected light. The brightness levels can be discussed in scale by light, mean and dark. Brightness is also measurable by a light meter both by radiant and reflected light.

Brightness is one aspect of light that can be measured in stops, and this means that it's a quality that can be adjusted at many stages of the photographic process.

2. Contrast

The contrast characteristic of light is constantly variable and is the differentiation between the various brightness of different subject material in the scene. It is variable because of the alternating nature of light and dark characterized by the light source.

Contrast is also a light quality that can be measured in the same way as brightness, in stops. This means contrast may also be altered at many stages of the photographic process.

3. Color

The color quality of light is fairly complex and needs to be broken down into several areas to understand more clearly. These are: color balance, tone, color temperature, primary colors, color effects and many others.

Color can be measured with a color meter. A color meter is similar to a light meter except that it measures color balance in terms of neutrality.

4. Specular

Specular light originates from one specific point and travels in a narrow beam. Both the sun and a light bulb are examples of specular light. Specular light is perceived as hard light.

5. Diffuse

Diffuse light comes from a large area and scatters in all directions. It is not a single light source and can be described as having an infinite number of sources. An overcast cloudy day can be a diffuse light source, fog or pollution haze can be a diffuse light source as well. Diffuse light is perceived as soft light.

6. Direction

The direction of light controls the formation of shadows, provides weight of texture, form and space. The photographer needs to pay attention to direction for dynamic lighting effects.

Putting it all together

How is all this information useful? All of the above is a guide to lighting your subject material, using either direct control or Indirect control. Address all of these qualities and you have constructed your lighting environment for your photo. Answer the following questions on the qualities of light:

1. What quality are you going to use; specular, diffuse or a combination?

2. In what direction is the light coming from? Do you need to modify this?

3. What is the light and shade correlation? Is this contrast satisfactory?

4. Is the brightness suitable for your requirements?

5. Do you require color neutrality or effects?

The answers to the above have just provided you with your lighting control plan!

Brightness is the intensity level of radiating (the sun) or reflected light (from a wall). The brightness levels can be discussed in scale by light, mean and dark. Brightness is also measurable by a light meter both by radiant (or incident) and reflected light. Brightness is one aspect of light that can be measured in stops, and this means that it's a quality that can be adjusted at many stages of the photographic process.