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photo-class — Knowing Light - Introduction
Published: 2004-01-12 13:01:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 27798; Favourites: 284; Downloads: 10437
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Description
The first of a series of articles trying to get the notion of light on photography layered down.Brief:
Light is one of the most important elements on a photograph, but it is often neglected, or ignored because of its apparent complexities.
In fact, light in photography is just a question of knowing what you want, and how to use what is available to achieve that very outcome.
Enjoy, and please leave us a comment if you found this helpful or if you have advices for us.
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Originally submitted: Jan 12, 2004
Resubmitted: 22 May, 2007
Article by ^superkev
Related content
Comments: 48
Thank you so much! I never would have thought of using white bristol board as a reflector, but it makes sense.
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'Photographers, do you know what your medium is? For the other forms of art, the answer to this question is easy: painters use paint, sketchers use pencils, and musicians use sound. But as a photographer, your medium is light.' I like it
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dude, this helped me a TON!!! i knew like, almost nothing about lighting. thanks man.
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thanks Bro i do have the same bible that you preach i do agree that knowledge should be share ...... thank a lot for the info.... i would pass this to others whose willing to learn...... more power..
troxdfox
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nice one 
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Is it just me or is this not working? I tried downloading it but said nothing was there and no image is showing up.
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Thanks, this was great. Very useful information and explained everything pretty well.
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hi kevin... had a question.
i cant afford these high speed flashes... then wht is the next best option for me? i use a fm10 and have a simple electronic flash. i try working with torchlights, but wht i want to know is... which lights wuld suit best for replacing the flash?
i know its astupid question.. but id reall like to know
thankx
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I think it is wonderful that you guys got together to make these tutorials. They are easy to read and comprehend, and I am grateful.
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Just read your tutorial on light. A very easy to understand tutorial that offered a few useful tips for me. The diagrams were also a useful accompaniment. I am yet to read the tutorial on softness, but I believe the refector that should be used should be based on how clear, soft or whatever you want the image to come out looking like?? So do you always put the reflector opposite to the source of the light and should you choose a stronger reflector (aluminium foil) for a darker subject?
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You can experiment with various reflectors and if it's too strong or too soft you can move it closer or further away from your subect to accentuate or diminish the effect.
Golden or silver sunshields that are sold to be placed under the windshield of cars to keep them cool in the summer make excellent affordable reflectors.
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Make your own with wrapping paper with metalic finish, cover board and off you go. Another trick is to use small vanity mirrors to reflect light, especially when you work with food photography.
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Very useful text. I like the way u compared aparature and shuter speed with doors of a buildig and people coming in. I already understud some of the stuff but it is more clear to me now. I prefere natural light, but now maybe I will try something else inside.
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Thank you for the tutorial! While I understood the concepts, your explanation made them easier to process! Thanks again!
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Good reading for me as a beginner at photography. 
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very helpful and useful article...thanx for submitting this...
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Great article. I learn so much from the articles here. Thanks a ton!
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This is great... who needs to pay $250 aus. for a photography class, when we've got it all right here!
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thnak you thank you thank you for another great tutorial. keep them coming
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Thanks for your help. It's exactly what i need at the moment, 'cause i'm trying to improve the lighting in my photos. 
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Very cool, it has quite a lot of pointers. It'll help me quite a bit. Thank you so much!
Morgan
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excellent explanations here for the beginner photographers. nice images to accompany too. thanks for the hard work.
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great work, *In-Apt ! you've taken my fragments and made them beautiful!
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Your the perfet person to do this tutorial.
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indeed...
i have a question though, concerning flash synch speed...
you shot the flask at 1/500 which would be pretty fast for flash synch...
and 1/1000 on the rivulets? since you don't use high speed flash synch (your comment about the flash duration) and i don't know a camera with more than 1/500 of synch speed, so why isn't just a small stripe exposed?
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I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. But, on my old camera, I could sync flash at any speed. Like most simple digital cameras, it used the aperture blades as a shutter. I guess this allowed it to operate the shutter faster than a normal SLR focal-plane shutter. It could get a more even exposure, even at very high sync speeds. I hope this helps.
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ah, ok, that explains it...
and now that i think of it, that must be the reason why i never found out the flash synch speed for my sony 707... because it doesn't have one, argh...
an interesting aspect of cheap beats expensive
although i think simple digicams use the chip itself as "shutter", by just turning it on and off electronically...
using the aperture blades as shutter is something i only know from large (and maybe medium) format lenses...
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Thanks to all writers at ~photo-class . You are helping a lot!
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