Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. Copyright © 2003 – 2009 Kenji Tachibana Light and Lighting 28 slides

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting T erm: Photography It means ‘drawing with light’. That makes understanding light very important. It has six (6) major qualities important to a photographer. 1.Brightness 2.Contrast 3.Color 4.Direction 5.Softness 6.Hardness 7.Evenness

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality 1. B rightness Harsh light on a white sandy beach can be hard on our eyes without dark glasses. It can also be problematic for the camera. A worse problem is low light level. And that will be most likely your assignment lighting issue. Whether harsh bright or Seattle dim gray light, correct exposure is just a matter of numbers. White can be made to look black and black and be made to look white just by adjusting numbers…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality 2.C ontrast Skylight or overcast skies means soft dynamic (tonal) range. If the light contrast is too soft, you may have to increase the camera’s contrast setting. Do this now by following your camera manual instruction or me… Most of your assignments will be shot using the recommended Skylight, soft natural light. Shoot your assignment shots using the default ‘Normal’ or the ‘High’ setting. Settings are High, Normal, and Low.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality 3.C olor The usual Pacific Northwest light is soft and blue (cyan) in color. So the assignment images taken in that light will look slightly cyan. The modest amount of ‘cool’ shift-in-color is easily neutralized in the Photoshop lab-work process. Don’t use artificial light sources such as incandescent, fluorescent, or sodium vapor because they will create bad color nightmares. That is especially true for skin.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality 4.D irection This is also a potential problem topic. Our soft light tends to look direction less. And when the light is used without light direction control, it often ends up as an undesirable top direction light. I recommend and stress the use of soft sidelight for most assignment shoots. You must use your squint-view technique to see the light direction. And to modify it or the subject to achieve side lighting affect.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality 5. S oftness The amount of softness can be determined by looking at the cast shadow edge. Skylight usually casts a very soft (gentle) shadow. Depending on the subject and light direction, the shadow may even appear non-existent, which is not desirable. Direct sunlight casts a very hard-edged shadow which is a definite ‘Don’t Do’.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality 6.H ardness Direct sunlight can cast hard edged shadows. Artificial light also tend to be hard. Hard light tend to be harsh. And harsh light usually produce high-dynamic-range (HDR) lighting problems. This’s often true even with the camera contrast set to Low. Sony has a built in capability called HDO that deals with HDR lighting conditions. And HDO works much better than the Contrast set to Low. The ‘O’ stands for optimization.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality 7.E venness (new addition – Jan. 31, 2009) Evenness of lighting is often created by the subject and the background being lit by a single source soft (Skylight preferred) light. Using broad-source light increases the chance for even lighting. Using harsh pin-point source like direct sunlight creates very dark shadow areas that work against achieving even lighting.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality M ini Summary: Keep it controlled 1.Use Skylight, which is gentle and forgiving to draw with. It a very broad source soft light with two drawbacks. -Become too soft, appear directionless, or end up being a top direction light. -Tends to be on the dim (dark) and can easily become ‘not enough light’ to shoot by. 1.Use sidelight to bring out form and texture. Although, don’t let the sidelight get too extreme causing important details to get lost into the murky shadows. 2.Limit the light source to a single source. Multiple source lighting can cause multiple shadows and/or introduce light source color variations.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality W hite Balance: Set it to Auto Light sources can have different coloration from cool to warm. Skylight, Open Shade, and Overcast light ranges from cool to very cool. The household Incandescent and candle light is warm to very warm. White Balance (icon ) controls the color setting for the camera. Set it to Auto (default?) and it’ll takes care of making the color look neutral. This is especially true when using assignment recommended Skylight.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality W hite Balance: Lord (Baron) Kelvin William Thomson is the first Baron. Lord Kelvin was an Irish-born British mathematical physicist and engineer. He developed the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature measurement of light at the Glasgow University in the early 1900’s. Type of LightColor Temperature Candle Flame1500 Kelvin Incandescent3000 Kelvin Sunrise, Sunset3500 Kelvin Midday Sun, Flash5500 Kelvin Bright Sun, Clear Sky6000 Kelvin Cloudy Sky, Shade7000 Kelvin Blue Sky9000 Kelvin

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality A ccessory: Fill-card reflectors and more White reflector cards are usually not necessary with soft lighting. In fact, It’s usually the black, gray, or white ‘light block’ card that is often required to ‘paint-in’ shadow areas. Although, if the light is too flat even after using the light block. It’s possible to ‘pump-up’ the highlight side using a silver reflector. This ‘move’ will not add unnatural shadows or change color.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality D ynamic (Tonal) Range: By the numbers 1.Flat Light –1:1 f/stop light ratio Likely lighting is heavy overcast 2.Soft Light –2:1 f/stop light ratio. Likely lighting is light overcast. 3.Med. Light–2.5:1 f/stop light ratio. Likely lighting is Skylight (clear) 4.Med. Hard –3:1 f/stop light ratio. Likely lighting is cloudy bright 5.Hard Light-4:1 f/stop or higher light ratio Likely lighting is direct sunlight

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality L ight Ratio: Advanced method Use the camera spot meter to read the highlight and shadow sides separately to determine the light ratio. The Seattle blue sky and overcast light usually reads very close to 0 to 1 f/stops apart. Whether soft or harsh dynamic tonal range, the spot meter method will tell you the dynamic tonal range of any subject. Don’t use this method until you have more experience ‘reading the light’ in any scene.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality D ynamic (Tonal) Range: By descriptions 1.1:1 Flat– Use silver or black fill card to increase dynamic range. 2.2:1 Soft– Great general purpose shooting tonal range without much lighting manipulation. 3.3:1 Med.– Use the white reflector card to open-up any important shadows and to lower dynamic range Hard– Avoid this type (direct sun or indoor incandescent) of light.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light quality S ee the Light: Squint-view The example image to the right is a simulated squinted-view of the image to the left. Using the right image as a guide, squint your eyes now and make the left one look like the right one. NormalSimulated Squint-view

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light modifiers N ever Perfect: Light modifier accessories 1.Use a white fill-light card to decrease scene tonal contrast. 2.Use black card to increase the scene tonal contrast. 3.Use silver, gold, and aluminum foil reflectors for special purpose fill-light or other types of lighting effects. 4.Use translucent (bed sheet, handkerchief, tissue, and more) materials to diffuse (soften). 5.Use metal screens (fire safe) for ‘hot light’ diffusion. 6.Use flame-proof and non-treated material to block (scrim) or feather light. These are all ‘painting-with-light’ ideas.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Light modifier use P ainting with Light: Before and After example Notice that the After example on the right is much more 3-dimensional with stronger separation from the background After and much more Presence…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. F avorite Light Source: Advance technique 1.Direct sunlight coming through a picture window covered with diffusing material (velum ) to soften the light. 2.Dynamic range is being further reduced by the use of a white reflector A and a mirror. 3.Block off some of the light falling on the background using a hard (Special K) and soft (Towel) gobo. 4.‘ B ’ marks the tripod head that held the camera. 5.Light direction is from the SIDE. AB

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: A way of thinking H ard Light: Making it look dynamite The first shot has flat-front lighting showing an ID shot of the cover. Moments later, I took a second shot using top back light from the other side. And the resulting incident highlight (glare) makes the metal look very bold and brings out the cover design motif.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Local outdoor lighting B eautiful but… The abundant beautiful available light is not very bright. Its low illumination level has proven to be very challenging to many beginning students. And low-light-level has always been challenging to photographers. And it’s more challenging to compact digital shooter because of the low sensor chip sensitivity (ISO 100 speed) to light.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Local outdoor lighting L ow Light Warned: It often results in under exposed (dark) images. Most images can be fixed in the Lab Work process using Photoshop. Although, the resulting image is heavy with digital grain, poor color, and ‘flat’ due to low contrast. Even worse is the fuzzy image caused by camera motion due to slow shutter speed. Note: Dark images are not the result of low light level. Dark image is the result of exposure error.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Fuzzy image solution and more… S teady Solution: Use a tripod Using a tripod does much more than steady the camera. It can free your mind up to focus on other issues besides holding the camera steady. I‘ve used a monopod when taking pictures in downtown alleys with questionable characters about. A monopod can easily be converted to a self protection baton. I’ve also readied my ‘blinding’ flash for self protection in dark alley ways…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: And more… I mprove Relationships: Using a tripod also allows you freedom to interact with your subject. This is important whether your subject is a Person or even a Thing. An important part of photography is about being fully their with your subject. Hiding behind the camera can prevent making that all important connection with your subject.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Sidelight reminder L ight Direction: Use sidelight Lighting is about seeing and drawing with light. Side light works well for most subjects. Side direction light brings out form and texture which help the image have ‘Presence’. Although, there is no one perfect lighting. The light can come from any direction and be of any quality or quantity. Beautiful lighting is not a theory or bunch of rules. It’s about seeing. If you see it, you can manipulate it to tell your story.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Bottom line S eeing Light: I hope that you are not totally blind regarding seeing beautiful light. I can teach many things but seeing light is one of the more difficult skills to teach and learn. If you don’t see it yet, it may take more than Art 114 to teach it to you. Although, I can teach you to be a reasonable technical photographer by the end of Art 114.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Light and Lighting: Final thoughts R eality: Most Compact are capable of producing very high quality images. Most of my assignment requirement instructions are based on keeping you from asking your camera to do what it was never designed to do. If you shoot under direct sunlight or try to stop subject motion with 1/30 th sec shutter speed, the resulting image will probably not come out very well. Let the Compact do what it was designed to do, and choose to make your images look good…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I x End