الإضاءة .. كتاب التصوير علم وفن

Chapter Four: Lighting

Lighting is: There are four types.

1- Direct lighting: It is lighting with high contrast (the difference between main lighting and shadow lighting) and has specific strong shadows. It is characterized by a color temperature that can be measured by color temperature measuring devices. Examples of this lighting are direct sunlight - spot light - photo flood lamp. the flash

A senior photographer defined photography as: the art of drawing with light. And we find that

The functions of light in photography are: 1- Lighting the subject.

2 - The symbol of depth, texture and embodiment.

- Setting a general atmosphere for the image.

- Distributed lighting: It is soft lighting with low contrast and gives weak shadows that do not have a definitive limit. It is very suitable for lighting and opening areas of examples of distributed light. Lighting from the sun from behind light clouds or a light source in front of which the shadows are distributed. It is light.

Reflected lighting: This is a very soft lighting that does not have specific shades and does not have a specific color temperature, because its color is a mixture of the color of the light source and the color of the reflector. Examples of such lighting are the light emanating from the blue sky only, without direct sunlight, and the light reflected from a flash on the ceiling, for example
Filtered light: This light has lost part of its spectrum colors, which is the part that was absorbed by the filter. Therefore, images taken with filtered light (eg through tinted window glass - filters held in front of the light source - under the shade of trees) show a color tinge of the filter's color.

light direction:

- From a - 2 ㄨ in terms of the direction of the light, the photographer has the freedom to choose five types of lighting types in terms of direction, and each has its own distinctive characteristics that the photographer benefits from. Frontal or facing light: It is the light that comes. Behind the camera or in the case of using the flash when it is mounted above the camera, and this light falls on the subject from the same side as the camera, and therefore it has no shadows or has very few shadows, and therefore it gives a flat effect to the image, and this light is distinguished by its good interpretation of colors with the truth of the side light: which is The light that falls on the subject from one side of it or one side of the camera and therefore creates strong shadows. Hence, the effect of depth and embodiment is given to the subject, as well as a sense of the texture of the surface of the subject being photographed. Because this type of lighting is the most widely used type, it is rarely given a strange or exciting effect. Vertical light: which falls on the subject from directly above it, like the sun at noon. This type of lighting rarely gives an attractive picture because it is coarse and has high contrast, and gives strong small shadows. Lighting from below: This is usually artificial lighting and is used only in some special cases, such as giving an evil effect to a person as a result of the shadows that form on his face.
Back light: It is the one that comes from behind the subject to be photographed. This light is very contrasting, and if part of it falls on the lens, it may be haze and light halos on the film, and it is difficult to use, but if you use it well, it is able to give the most beautiful and most effects. Or a piece of paper that does not appear in the picture, as well as using a lens visor, etc. B - Avoid the intensity of the contrast by using auxiliary lighting to fill and open the shadows areas using a reflector or using the flash as we will explain later.

We mentioned before the types of lighting sources and said that they may be natural or artificial, and we will explain here the most important ways to benefit from this lighting:

natural lighting

It means the light of the sun, or the light of the sky, or the light of the moon, and the stars.

1- The light of the moon and stars: This is a very weak light that requires a long exposure time that may reach several hours. It has a color temperature that tends to be cold, that is, it tends to be blue. This lighting can be simulated during the day by using a dark blue filter in front of the lens and decreasing the exposure by two degrees. The sun and the sky (the day) change: this light is not fixed because it is dark, not only in terms of brightness, but also in terms of color temperature. Positive and negative color films are prepared to give colors.
It does not become real in the light of its temperature, about 56,000 Kelvin, which is standard daylight. Standard daylight is defined photographically as the light emanating from the sun and the blue sky with several white clouds when the sun's height above the horizon line is more than 520. But under different circumstances, we find that the daylight is white in relation to the film, so we find that the images tend to be yellow, red, scarlet, blue, or green! . how ? When the sun rises from the east, it gives a yellowish light, because it penetrates a greater distance from the atmosphere, then it begins to turn white until it rises above 520° from the horizon line, and at sunset when the sun tilts less than 520° from the horizon line. It takes a second in yellowing, then redness, as the percentage of dust in the air increases. After sunset, the color of the images tends to be crimson or violet, which is a mixture of the color of the twilight and the color of the blue sky, then the light becomes blue (only the color of the sky), then darkness prevails. If we take pictures in open places (such as a balcony) on which direct sunlight does not fall, but rather takes its illumination from the blue light of the sky, we find that these pictures appear to have a cold blue tinge to them. But if we take pictures under the shade of trees, the light is filtered by the green leaves, giving the picture only a tinge, as this is green. The photographer can fix most of these colors using filters

However, these colors can be used to give the image color dimensions

A new or special atmosphere (such as the red color to give the sunset atmosphere).

Lighting in the way of Rembrandt: (Rembrandt) is the famous painter, and his pictures were distinguished by side lighting on the important parts of the body, but he does not leave the shadows dark, but rather gives them light distributed lighting to open them, so the details appear in the shadows without prejudice to anthropomorphism

Rembrandt lighting

. Natural or artificial light can be used to make this lighting, and the easiest way to use natural light is to make the person fall on the light from a window in a room, for example, and open the shadows with a reflector on the other side. This reflector may be a sheet of white paper, or a sheet of wood on which we spread crumpled aluminum sheets like those sold in the supermarket for use in the oven.