*

*
*WHY DOES LIGHT MATTER IN
PHOTOGRAPHY?

*Photography is the act of capturing light.

*light rays entering the camera through the lens & creates
an image on film by chemically changing the films
emulsion, or onto a digital sensor in a digital camera.
*
*Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, visible
to the human eye.

*When light is emitted from a source, it moves away in
straight lines in all directions

(This is why a room appears to instantly fill with
light when you turn on a light switch.)

*(Light Waves are rays or waves
of light)
*
*Light waves have two characteristics that can be
measured
*Wavelength: the distance from one crest of one wave to
the crest of the next (measured in Nanometer)

*Frequency is a measure is a measure of the number of
waves (cycles) passing a given point in one second (Hertz)



*
*WHY does this matter?




*
*Our eyes see the different wavelengths as different
colors.

*(The portion of light that the human eye can see is
referred to as the visible spectrum.)

*Cones in our eyes are receptive to three ranges of
wavelength:
* 400nm 500nm (blue), 500nm 600nm (green) and 600nm 700nm (red)

*All of these combined give us a
rainbow of colors we can see.
*
*When light is made up of of red, green, and blue
wavelengths in approximately equal proportions, it is said
to be white light.


*(This is most of the light
we see that we do not
consider to be colored
light.)



RED
BLUE
GREEN
WHITE LIGHT!
*
*When light strikes an object, one of three things will happen.
Light will be:
*Absorbed
*Transmitted
*Reflected


*This depends on
the material the
object is made of,
the type of finish,
& the objects
color.

*
*Our perception of an objects color is based on the
wavelengths of light that are reflected from that object.
*White or light-colored objects reflect light rays readily.
*Black or dark-colored objects absorb most light rays.


*WHY is this important in photography???
*
*Knowing what may reflect and create glare on the lens

*If you have a light colored object, you can use it to reflect
light toward an area where you need more light in the
photo.

*Understanding what youre taking a picture of may need
more or less light or adjusted camera settings because of
its color or texture.

*White balance


*
*Why is white balance important?
*Have you ever taken a picture inside and it looked all RED?
*Or taken a picture outside that looked all BLUE?
*Thats because of white balance! (the camera needs to know
what normal
white should be in each specific lighting
situation).

*The cameras have
pre-set white balance
options!
*
* Auto

* Tungsten shooting indoors, especially
bulb lighting. It cools down the colors in
photos.

* Fluorescent compensates for the cool
fluorescent light and warms up your shots.

* Daylight/S (considered normal not all
cameras have)
*
* Warms up shot

* Flash Compensates for flash

* Shade the light in shade is generally
cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct
sunlight so this mode will warm things up a
little.

* Custom manually set white balance in
trickier lighting situations
*
*Will control the sensitivity of the sensor
*The lower the number, the less sensitive
*For low light you will need a higher ISO number to make
the sensor more sensitive.
*(but higher ISO, the more noise (grainy look) will show up.)
*
*Pro: Higher ISO allows
shooting in lower light
condition

*Con: Higher ISO settings
result in more digital noise