How to use light in photography?

Light for photography,

1. Understand the characteristics of light

Each art form has its own unique means of expression. Photographers' means of expression is light. Without light, they would be as useless as a sculptor without clay or a painter without paint.

Although the art of photography has always followed the development of painting, literature and other art forms for more than 150 years, it has formed its own different schools and styles. Especially in the past 50 years, futuristic photography, Absurd photography, editing photography, three-dimensional clay photography, etc. can all have similarities with sister arts in form, but they are still different after all. One of the reasons is that photographers give full play to the unique modeling method of photography - the language of light. Through light, they form their own modeling methods and determine the expressive intention of the picture; through light, they are not only different from other sister arts, but also produce their own artistic styles among photographers.

Creative photographers often say that the understanding of light is the most important part of a photographer's artistic talent. Light itself is expressed in many different forms, from which photographers can choose the most suitable form to achieve a particular purpose. These forms of light can be controlled, and they can be used to express specific subject characteristics, concepts, and moods in photographs. Before photographers can exploit the full potential of light, they must analyze it, understand its various properties, and familiarize themselves with its various effects and uses.

American photographer A. Feininger pointed out that for photographers, light has three main properties: intensity, quality and color. The first is intensity. The intensity of light can range from bright to dark, and this applies to any light source. For example, in cloudless weather, the sunlight at noon is very strong, and in windy and sandy weather, the light is dim. There can be no light at night. The intensity of artificial light sources varies with the wattage of the lamp.

Feininger believes that bright light gives people a dazzling, bright and serious feeling, while dim light often expresses melancholy, tranquility and reserved emotions. This difference in lighting intensity will be reflected in the photo in three different ways: the lightness and darkness of the subject, the contrast range of the subject, and the color reproduction of the subject in color photos.

When the illumination intensity is very high, the subject appears brighter, clearer, and more contrasty, and the colors appear more vivid than under low illumination intensity. If the photographer is good at catching and cherishing these different changes in the subject, he can use appropriate intensity of light to better highlight the characteristics of the specific subject. It is important that this characteristic of lighting is represented in the photograph. Some photographers often think that very bright light will make the subject appear too dazzling, with the highlight part too bright and the shadow part pitch black, so they artificially reduce this contrast and produce photos with relatively low contrast. The result is completely lacking. Characteristics typical of special lighting conditions. For example, in the scene of steel tapping in an open-hearth furnace, the hot molten steel is so bright that the eyes can see nothing except black and white.

Feininger believes that using a very strong fill light to soften and reduce contrast, as some people do, would completely destroy the dramatic effect of this scene. When a sensitive photographer encounters this kind of subject, he will completely abandon all the rules and regulations about the use of light that he has learned, and only consider how to express the hot and dazzling impression of molten steel: by emphasizing the characteristics of lighting, strengthening contrast, and using silhouettes and halo effects, manage to capture this vivid scene.

The second property of light is its different qualities. Light can be direct light from a hot light source, such as sunlight unobstructed by clouds or fog, direct artificial light from spotlights, photography lights, and flashlights; or diffuse light reflected from the surface of an illuminated object, such as fog or overcast weather. Daylight, artificial light reflected from walls, ceilings or other light-reflecting surfaces; or diffused light caused by adding a diffuser in front of a hot light source.

Direct light is bright and contrasting, creating clear and prominent shadows. The scattered light formed by reflection is softer and has low contrast, which can cause gray, blurry shadows, or no shadows at all. Of course, there are countless transitional stages between the two. Practice shows that the shadow part caused by direct light can change with the change of the position of the light source and the subject, or the change of the position of the photographer and the light source. This kind of shadow can enhance or weaken the characteristics of the subject because of its shape, pattern and the size of the area it occupies. Reflected light can show the shape of the subject and reproduce its original appearance delicately and naturally, and has little to do with the relative position of the subject and the light source. Therefore, Feininger pointed out that direct light is more difficult to use successfully than scattered light, because if used improperly, the results will be worse. However, when used correctly, it allows photographers to capture vivid images with high contrast and black and white pattern effects that are far better than what can be achieved with scattered light.

The third property of light proposed by Feininger is color. He pointed out that those color photographers who are devoted to color reproduction must make sure that the color of the lighting (its color temperature) must be consistent with the color temperature required by the color film. For example, the light of early morning and evening is not suitable for daylight film, and the photos taken with this film are more yellowish or reddish than the scenery seen by the eyes. Additionally, sunlight in shaded areas outdoors is often somewhat bluish.

American photographer Arthur Goldsmith believed that light has two characteristics: objectivity and subjectivity. Photographers need to take care of both. The so-called objective light refers to a narrow frequency band in the electromagnetic spectrum that allows us to see and record images. However, Goldsmith points out that while accurately measuring this light for correct exposure, making good use of the subjective nature of light as a creative factor in photography cannot be ignored. . Subjective light is the light that enables us to respond to emotions.