Let there be Light

How is a picture formed?

When a rays of light reflect from a surface pass through the lens of the camera and fall on sensor an inverted image of what you see through the view finder is formed. This is further processed by the camera to give the correct output.

In simple words "A photograph is a picture painted by using light(s)"

Just like its important for every painter to know about colors and medium they are using for their paintings, It is important for every photographer  to learn a bit about light.

In this article I wanted to share some of the basic pointers on Art and Science of Light. Hope this will help you do better photography.

Art of using Light

Right use of light can make a picture magnificent at the same time if you stumble you will end up taking weird, dull, and uninteresting pictures. Following pointers should assist you take some decisions while you are shooting.

• Angle of light: While taking a picture make sure your where your source of light is and how it is falling on your subject. A photographer can choose to play with shadow and brightness  by either choosing reflectors or another angle to shoot from to get desired results.
• Shadows: Certain kind of shadows are good and leave an artistic look on your subject, but some which are created behind the subject either by source any of light (natural or unnatural) can spoil the image unless used artistically from correct angles. 
• Silhouettes: One of my favorite photographing techniques is when you capture the subject, where  there is minimum or no light falling on the subject. Source of light would ideally be behind the subject to give it a perfect shadow look. 
• Bright patches: Avoid over exposing the subject or clicking from angles which would leave bright patches on subject as these not only spoil the pictures in most of the cases but also are difficult to manage during post processing on an image. 
• Painting with light: This can be fun technique if done right. This requires cameras with slow shutter capabilities and artificial source of light. This can be while its dark and needs a bit of planning to get desired results. 
• The Drama: Same location can look dramatically different in your photograph while  you shoot at different time of a day or in different climatic conditions. Its suggested to shoot outdoors during early mornings & evening when the light is not too harsh, some call it as period of good light or "Golden hour" (30 minutes before and 30 minutes after sunrise & sunset).
  There are some photographers who like using harsh lights for giving that artistic touch. Now a days there are advanced techniques that allow one to shoot in harsh lights and yet get good results during post processing. 

Science of light

Science is light is a huge topic and can be studied by completely studying Quantum physics and related subjects. Below I have shared only those few bullet points which I think will help you in shooting if you keep them in mind:

• Light is a form of electro magnetic radiant energy which our eyes are sensitive to.
• Out of wide spectrum of electromagnetic energies is a very small portion which is visible to eyes. 
• Light travels at different speed through different mediums, like air, water, glass, etc. 
• Speed is different for each color.
• Red is cool! Blue is hot!  - That's true going by color temperature of light on Kelvin scale. 
• Light travels in straight line, unless reflected, absorbed, refracted or transmitted by an object or another medium. 
• Light travels at a constant speed in a given medium.
• Light radiates in all direction from it source. Longer the distance it spreads more and hence its intensity reduces. It becomes important to keep this in mind while  selecting exposure settings.
• Earlier sole source of light was sun, now there are more options such as tungsten lamps, tungsten-halogen lamps, fluorescent lamps, and electronic flash
• There are two kinds of external light source, flood lights and spot lights. These kind of lights can be created using various lighting accessories. 
• Artificial lights of different color, intensity and quality should no be mixed unless you want some kind of special effect. 

{Watch this space for more info in future}