Light

Photography means drawing with light. You don't actually take a picture of something: you record the light
emitted or reflected from something. Understanding something of light can greatly improve your
photography. This Lesson covers some theory about light, and follows up with some practical advice on
how to deal with specific kinds of light.

The most important classification of light in photography is the division between available light and artificial
light. Available light is the light that happens to illuminate the scene the photographer wants to photograph:
it can be daylight, moonlight, starlight, streetlight, or interior lighting. Artificial light (in this sense) is light that
the photographer controls to achieve a specific purpose in the photograph. It can be on-camera or off-
camera flash, studio lights, or just any old light hauled up for the photo. A reflector is something in between:
a device the photographer uses to modify available light to improve the picture. For most purposes, available
light should be used whenever possible, and artificial light should be made to look as "natural" as possible...
unless the photographer has some very specific artistic or aesthetic purpose in mind. With these things in
mind, let's get down to the business at hand. What is light? What characteristics does it have? How does it
get to the camera? And what can we do about it?

Characteristics of light

The three most important characteristics of light are brightness, colour, and temperature. Brightness does
not need much explanation, but colour and temperature are slightly more subtle concepts. Light is
electromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye. It consists of different wavelengths, which are perceived
as different colours. Very long wavelengths are perceived as red, and very short ones as violet. In between
are orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo. Beyond red are infra-red, microwaves, and radio waves; beyond
violet, ultra-violet, X-rays, and gamma rays. Light that has a specific colour is emitted on a narrow band of
wavelengths. For example, the yellow sodium streetlights only cover one wavelength - that emitted by
excited sodium atoms. The same is true for most coloured light, such as the different-coloured flares used
in fireworks, neon signs, Christmas lights, and so on. coloured light can only show up tonality (dark to light)
in those colours that reflect the colour of the light. For example, a blue object in sodium light appears
completely black: try it out for yourself if you don't believe me. However, a green object also reflects yellow
light, so it will not look black - and an object that is exactly the same colour as the sodium lights will look
identical to a white object. White light is a combination of many wavelengths. It can show up tonality in all
colours. However, the wavelengths may not be evenly distributed: the light may have a colour cast. For
example, normal incandescent interior lighting is heavily weighted towards the orange-red end of the
spectrum, and fluorescent light has a green cast. This is where white balancing comes in: it corrects for the
distribution Light of wavelengths in the available light, and gives objects their "actual" colour. The human
eye white-balances automatically - that's why we perceive a white sheet of paper as white even when it's lit
by orange incandescent light... but if we photograph it in daylight white balance, the photo will appear
orange. (Or vice versa: if we take a picture of a white sheet of paper in daylight using incandescent white
balance, it will appear blue.) The colour cast of white light can be unambiguously expressed as a
temperature, usually in the Kelvin scale. It is a physical fact that if you heat an object to a given temperature,
it will emit light with a certain colour cast, no matter what material the object is made of. However, this light
is still "white" in the sense that it contains light of all wavelengths: therefore, it can reveal tonalities in all
colours, and it is possible to correct for the colour cast by white balancing. In a nutshell: you can white
balance to correct colour casts in white light, but not for coloured light. There is no way of getting natural-
looking colour in a scene lit by sodium streetlights: there simply aren't any blue or green photons to carry
the information.

Line and shape

Lines are optical phenomena that allow the artist to direct the eye of the viewer. The optical illusion of lines
do exist in nature and visual arts elements can be arranged to create this illusion. The viewer unconsciously
reads near continuous arrangement of different elements and subjects at varying distances. Such elements
can be of dramatic use in the composition of the image. These could be literal lines such as telephone and
power cables or rigging on boats. Lines can derive also from the borders of areas of differing color or
contrast, or sequences of discrete elements. Movement is also a source of line, and blur can also create a
reaction.[citation needed]
Subject lines contribute to both mood and linear perspective, giving the viewer the illusion of depth. Oblique
lines convey a sense of movement and angular lines generally convey a sense of dynamism and possibly
tension. Lines can also direct attention towards the main subject of picture, or contribute to organization by
dividing it into compartments. The artist may exaggerate or create lines perhaps as part of their message to
the viewer. Many lines without a clear subject point suggest chaos in the image and may conflict with the
mood the artist is trying to evoke.[citation needed]

Straight left lines create different moods and add affection to visual arts. A line's angle and its relationship
to the size of the frame influence the mood of the image. Horizontal lines, commonly found in landscape
photography, can give the impression of calm, tranquility, and space. An image filled with strong vertical
lines tends to have the impression of height and grandeur. Tightly angled convergent lines give a dynamic,
lively, and active effect to the image. Strongly angled, almost diagonal lines produce tension in the image.
The viewpoint of visual art is very important because every different perspective views different angled lines.
This change of perspective elicits a different response to the image. By changing the perspective only by
some degrees or some centimetres lines in images can change tremendously and a totally different feeling
can be transported. Straight lines are also strongly influenced by tone, color, and repetition in relation to the
rest of the image.

Compared to straight lines, curves provide a greater dynamic influence in a picture. They are also generally
more aesthetically pleasing, as the viewer associates them with softness. In photography, curved lines can
give graduated shadows when paired with soft-directional lighting, which usually results in a very
harmonious line structure within the image.

Color

There are three properties of color. Hue, brightness, and value. Hue is simply the name of a color, (red,
yellow, and blue, etc.) Brightness refers to the intensity and strength of the color. The lightness and darkness
to a color is the value. Color also has the ability to work within our emotions. Given that, we can use color
to create mood. It can also be used as tone, pattern, light, movement, symbol, form, harmony, and contrast.

An element of art made up of three properties: hue, value, and intensity.

• Hue: name of color
• Value: hue’s lightness and darkness (a color’s value changes when white or black is added)
• Intensity: quality of brightness and purity (high intensity= color is strong and bright; low intensity= color is
faint and dull)
Texture

Texture refers to how an object feels or how it looks like it may feel if it were touched. There are two ways
we experience texture, physically and optically. Different techniques can be used to create physical texture,
which allows qualities of visual art to be seen and felt. This can include surfaces such as metal, sand, and
wood. Optical texture is when the illusion of physical texture is created. Photography, paintings, and
drawings use visual texture to create a more realistic appearance. [3]

Value

Lightness and darkness is what creates value in visual art. Value deals with how light reflects off of objects
and how we see it. The more light, the higher the value. White is the highest or lightest value while black is
the lowest or darkest value. Colors also have value, for example, yellow has a high value while blue has a
low value. This is a very important element of design, especially in painting and drawing, to be able to create
the illusion of light with contrast. Contrast is needed to understand two-dimensional artwork. [4]

Form

The term form can mean different things in visual art. Form suggests a three-dimensional object in space.
It is also described as the physical nature of the artwork, such as sculptures. It can also be looked at as art
form, which can be expressed through fine art. A form encloses volume, has length, width, and height, unlike
a shape, which is only two-dimensional. Forms that are mathematical, a sphere, pyramid, cube, cylinder,
and cone, are known as geometric forms. Organic forms are typically irregular and asymmetrical. This form
can be found in nature, such as flowers, rocks, trees, etc., but can also be seen in architecture. [5]

Forms in drawing and painting convey the illusion of three-dimensional form through lighting, shadows,
value, and tone. The more contrast in value, the more pronounced the three-dimensional form is. Forms
with little value appear flatter than those with greater variation and contrast.
Space

Space is the area around, above, and within an object. Photographers can capture space, architects build
space, and painters create space. This element is found in each of the visual arts. It can be positive or
negative, open or closed, shallow or deep, and two-dimensional or three-dimensional. In drawing or painting,
space is not actually there, but the illusion of it is. Positive space is the subject of the piece. The empty
spaces around, above, and within, is negative space.[6] [7]