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The Art of Photographic Lighting

Using Light Creatively to Get Better Photos

Eib Eibelshaeuser

Light Is Perception

Light Is Perception
Above all, we have to realize that humanity does not
shape light, but that light shapes humanity.

In 1827, when Joseph Nicphore Nipce


(17651833) conducted his first photographic experiments from his studio window in Gras, France, he had no option but
to use available, ambient light. It took more
than eight hours to produce the worlds first
photograph on a light-sensitive plate. The

process surely didnt involve any manipulation of light on the part of the photographer, but the shadows produced by the
movement of the sun across the sky were
nevertheless an important and integral part
of the resulting image.
Composing with Light
The earliest photographersor perhaps we
should call them users of the photographic
mediumwere simple reproductionists
who didnt (or couldnt) compose their images. The developments made during this
early phase of photographys history lay
largely in the hands of physicists, chemists,
and well-to-do hobbyists. Today, we can use
digital technology to light a scene completely with artificial light.
A composer of photographs requires an
innate sense of lighting aesthetics, based
on our collective experience of how light
behaves. It is also extremely important for
a photographer to know how to use a veritable arsenal of lighting tools. I am sure that
someone who has not learned to observe

light in nature, and who has no regard for


the harmony that exists between nature and
art (i.e., aesthetics), will not be able to compose with light or produce successful photographs. This is especially true of working
with virtual light sources. Above all, we have
to realize that humanity does not shape
light, but that light shapes humanity.
Design vs. Technology
Over the years, the most widely discussed
aspects of photographys development have
always been technical and compositional,
with current technology often defining the
state of the medium. Many discussions also
address the artistic and sociological sides
of taking pictures. The debate concerning
whether photography can truly be viewed as
art hasnt yet reached a satisfactory conclusion.
In the context of discussing light, moving
images receive more attention than their
still photographic counterparts, possibly
due to the closer relation of the narrative,
time-related form to everyday life. I consider light in the context of the overall photographic apparatus to be more comparable
with painting than with the movies.
Light Is Perception
Since the middle of the eighteenth century,
humanists have reacted to Galileos materialist theories by citing the separate natures
of body and soul. In 1781, Immanuel Kant,
a professor of metaphysics and logic, used
his treatise A Critique of Pure Reason
to emphasize the importance of rational
thought as a counterpoint to the physical
and emotional aspects of human existence.

The causal influence of light on processes


of perception and recognition in todays
world make it more important than ever
to develop an increased awareness of light.
Physics defines light as a particle and a form
of electromagnetic radiation, although light
per se is invisible and can only be perceived
once it interacts with objects that reflect it.
The physicist Werner Heisenberg proved
that either the position or the velocity of a
particle can be precisely determined, thereby introducing the concept of wave-particle
dualism.
Light is the raw material of perception,
making light and thought inseparable.
Without light, we cannot perceive; there
would be no shade, no shape, no color, and,
in the end, no images. This insight is of the
utmost importance to lighting designers.
Without light, we are unable to learn, and
even knowledge that itself requires no light
depends on light to be understood. Without
light, we have no sense of space or perspective. Light is the medium in which we experience, develop ideas, and gain knowledge.
Wishing you dramatic lighting,
Eib Eibelshaeuser

11

Light Is Perception

Light Is Perception
Above all, we have to realize that humanity does not
shape light, but that light shapes humanity.

In 1827, when Joseph Nicphore Nipce


(17651833) conducted his first photographic experiments from his studio window in Gras, France, he had no option but
to use available, ambient light. It took more
than eight hours to produce the worlds first
photograph on a light-sensitive plate. The

process surely didnt involve any manipulation of light on the part of the photographer, but the shadows produced by the
movement of the sun across the sky were
nevertheless an important and integral part
of the resulting image.
Composing with Light
The earliest photographersor perhaps we
should call them users of the photographic
mediumwere simple reproductionists
who didnt (or couldnt) compose their images. The developments made during this
early phase of photographys history lay
largely in the hands of physicists, chemists,
and well-to-do hobbyists. Today, we can use
digital technology to light a scene completely with artificial light.
A composer of photographs requires an
innate sense of lighting aesthetics, based
on our collective experience of how light
behaves. It is also extremely important for
a photographer to know how to use a veritable arsenal of lighting tools. I am sure that
someone who has not learned to observe

light in nature, and who has no regard for


the harmony that exists between nature and
art (i.e., aesthetics), will not be able to compose with light or produce successful photographs. This is especially true of working
with virtual light sources. Above all, we have
to realize that humanity does not shape
light, but that light shapes humanity.
Design vs. Technology
Over the years, the most widely discussed
aspects of photographys development have
always been technical and compositional,
with current technology often defining the
state of the medium. Many discussions also
address the artistic and sociological sides
of taking pictures. The debate concerning
whether photography can truly be viewed as
art hasnt yet reached a satisfactory conclusion.
In the context of discussing light, moving
images receive more attention than their
still photographic counterparts, possibly
due to the closer relation of the narrative,
time-related form to everyday life. I consider light in the context of the overall photographic apparatus to be more comparable
with painting than with the movies.
Light Is Perception
Since the middle of the eighteenth century,
humanists have reacted to Galileos materialist theories by citing the separate natures
of body and soul. In 1781, Immanuel Kant,
a professor of metaphysics and logic, used
his treatise A Critique of Pure Reason
to emphasize the importance of rational
thought as a counterpoint to the physical
and emotional aspects of human existence.

The causal influence of light on processes


of perception and recognition in todays
world make it more important than ever
to develop an increased awareness of light.
Physics defines light as a particle and a form
of electromagnetic radiation, although light
per se is invisible and can only be perceived
once it interacts with objects that reflect it.
The physicist Werner Heisenberg proved
that either the position or the velocity of a
particle can be precisely determined, thereby introducing the concept of wave-particle
dualism.
Light is the raw material of perception,
making light and thought inseparable.
Without light, we cannot perceive; there
would be no shade, no shape, no color, and,
in the end, no images. This insight is of the
utmost importance to lighting designers.
Without light, we are unable to learn, and
even knowledge that itself requires no light
depends on light to be understood. Without
light, we have no sense of space or perspective. Light is the medium in which we experience, develop ideas, and gain knowledge.
Wishing you dramatic lighting,
Eib Eibelshaeuser

11

Aspects of the Perception of Light

Aspects of the Perception of Light


Some sections of this chapter are based on the contents contained in the
book The Handbook of Lighting Design by Rdiger Ganslandt and Harald
Hofmann. Some sections are quoted directly and are reproduced by kind
courtesy of ERCO GmbH. This chapter also includes direct quotes from Christoph
Beckers term paper The Perception of Objects and Gestalt Theory According to
Wertheimer (www.ch-becker.de), reproduced by kind permission of the author.

Natural Light
This book deals mostly with how artificial
light can be manipulated and used in photography, but it also addresses how natural
sunlight behaves and can be used in various
contexts.
Appropriately, Heinrich Kramer and Walter von Lom wrote in their book, Light, We
dont think too much about where our ideas
about light come from or what shapes them,
but instead tend to think of them as Godgiven.
Sunlight has played a significant role in
the six-million-year evolution of our current world view. Five million years ago, our
predecessors were subject to the same day
and night rhythm that we are subject to
today. This constant factor sets lifes tempo,
and the colors and contrasts produced by
sunlight allowed us then, as now, to perceive space. Our worldview is bounded by
the same temporal and spatial limits as that
of our ancestors. Light has thus shaped
humanity indirectly via its influence on our
ideas of space and time. Human beings have

learned to express these ideas in the form


of religion, architecture, culture, and technology. Today, people are still influenced
by the epoch and the circumstances into
which they are born and by the light that
illuminates their world. We cannot ask our
ancestors what they thought about time and
space, so we have to resort to deducing their
ideas by analyzing the cultural relics they
have left behind.
If we look at a theoretical timeline of
light, we find that the first deliberate use
of fire occurred between five and six million years ago as a reaction to the changing
climate on Earth. The tree-dwellers of the
primeval forests were forced to walk upright
and search for new habitats on the ground.
Erstwhile forelegs were relieved of their
walking duties and began to adapt to other
tasks, such as the creation of primitive tools
and weapons. Seen from todays perspective, human beings have been controlling
and using fire to their own advantage for approximately one million years.

In the course of the evolutionary process,


human senses have stored certain experiences deep in the subconscious mind, and
these still influence our behavior today.
One important aspect of visual perception
is the idea that objects can appear right or
wrong. We know what a house looks like
and compare houses we see with our stored
idea of how a house should look. This type
of comparison is a dynamic process, and our
inner image of a house changes with time.
Sunlight is a phenomenon that influences
our perception of the world in a fundamental way. Here, too, right and wrong play a
role, and light that comes from below can
seem strange or even sinister.
The two illustrations above demonstrate
another effect that is based on our perceptual habit of expecting light to come from
above. The illustration on the left seems to
show a bump, while the one on the right
seems to show a hollow. In fact, both illustrations show the same hollow lit from
above, but the one on the left has been rotated 180 degrees.
Accordingly, we have to ask ourselves to
what degree we are influenced to produce
and interpret images by the incidence of
natural light coming from above as well as

our habit of assuming that artificial light


also comes from above.
If we assume that humans have certain
basic biological needs, we could posit that
people require simplicity and clarity in their
surroundings to orient themselves in the
world. Therefore, photographers should be
aware of these basic human instincts. In
general, subjects lit from above will appear
more natural, while subjects lit from other
angles will appear abnormal, creating dissonance for the viewer.
Artificial Light
The presence of fire in nature nurtured the
curiosity of early human beings. Scientists
found stone lamps that date from approximately 15,000 BC in the famous caves at
Lascaux in southern France. These lamps are
the first known specimines of artificial light
used by humans. They combined animal or
vegetable fat with early wicks to produce
light.
Tallow candles made of shaped animal fat
or beeswax were invented around 3000 BC.
In the year 900 AD, Chinese gunpowder was
brought to Europe for the first time, where
it was used primarily as a means of entertainment for the rich and not as a source of
light.

15

Aspects of the Perception of Light

Aspects of the Perception of Light


Some sections of this chapter are based on the contents contained in the
book The Handbook of Lighting Design by Rdiger Ganslandt and Harald
Hofmann. Some sections are quoted directly and are reproduced by kind
courtesy of ERCO GmbH. This chapter also includes direct quotes from Christoph
Beckers term paper The Perception of Objects and Gestalt Theory According to
Wertheimer (www.ch-becker.de), reproduced by kind permission of the author.

Natural Light
This book deals mostly with how artificial
light can be manipulated and used in photography, but it also addresses how natural
sunlight behaves and can be used in various
contexts.
Appropriately, Heinrich Kramer and Walter von Lom wrote in their book, Light, We
dont think too much about where our ideas
about light come from or what shapes them,
but instead tend to think of them as Godgiven.
Sunlight has played a significant role in
the six-million-year evolution of our current world view. Five million years ago, our
predecessors were subject to the same day
and night rhythm that we are subject to
today. This constant factor sets lifes tempo,
and the colors and contrasts produced by
sunlight allowed us then, as now, to perceive space. Our worldview is bounded by
the same temporal and spatial limits as that
of our ancestors. Light has thus shaped
humanity indirectly via its influence on our
ideas of space and time. Human beings have

learned to express these ideas in the form


of religion, architecture, culture, and technology. Today, people are still influenced
by the epoch and the circumstances into
which they are born and by the light that
illuminates their world. We cannot ask our
ancestors what they thought about time and
space, so we have to resort to deducing their
ideas by analyzing the cultural relics they
have left behind.
If we look at a theoretical timeline of
light, we find that the first deliberate use
of fire occurred between five and six million years ago as a reaction to the changing
climate on Earth. The tree-dwellers of the
primeval forests were forced to walk upright
and search for new habitats on the ground.
Erstwhile forelegs were relieved of their
walking duties and began to adapt to other
tasks, such as the creation of primitive tools
and weapons. Seen from todays perspective, human beings have been controlling
and using fire to their own advantage for approximately one million years.

In the course of the evolutionary process,


human senses have stored certain experiences deep in the subconscious mind, and
these still influence our behavior today.
One important aspect of visual perception
is the idea that objects can appear right or
wrong. We know what a house looks like
and compare houses we see with our stored
idea of how a house should look. This type
of comparison is a dynamic process, and our
inner image of a house changes with time.
Sunlight is a phenomenon that influences
our perception of the world in a fundamental way. Here, too, right and wrong play a
role, and light that comes from below can
seem strange or even sinister.
The two illustrations above demonstrate
another effect that is based on our perceptual habit of expecting light to come from
above. The illustration on the left seems to
show a bump, while the one on the right
seems to show a hollow. In fact, both illustrations show the same hollow lit from
above, but the one on the left has been rotated 180 degrees.
Accordingly, we have to ask ourselves to
what degree we are influenced to produce
and interpret images by the incidence of
natural light coming from above as well as

our habit of assuming that artificial light


also comes from above.
If we assume that humans have certain
basic biological needs, we could posit that
people require simplicity and clarity in their
surroundings to orient themselves in the
world. Therefore, photographers should be
aware of these basic human instincts. In
general, subjects lit from above will appear
more natural, while subjects lit from other
angles will appear abnormal, creating dissonance for the viewer.
Artificial Light
The presence of fire in nature nurtured the
curiosity of early human beings. Scientists
found stone lamps that date from approximately 15,000 BC in the famous caves at
Lascaux in southern France. These lamps are
the first known specimines of artificial light
used by humans. They combined animal or
vegetable fat with early wicks to produce
light.
Tallow candles made of shaped animal fat
or beeswax were invented around 3000 BC.
In the year 900 AD, Chinese gunpowder was
brought to Europe for the first time, where
it was used primarily as a means of entertainment for the rich and not as a source of
light.

15

16

Introduction

The first traditional candles appeared in


the middle of the fifteenth century, and
fireworks became popular in the Baroque
period, especially in Italy. At about the same
time, the first oil lamps were used to cast
diffused light on the streets of London.
Paris followed suit in 1524, but it was only
much later, in 1679, that oil lamps were first
used in Berlin.
In 1654, the Irish chemist Robert Boyle
(16271691) experimented with methane
fermented from organic waste and he began
to research the behavior and interaction
of air and gas. In 1783, the Swiss physicist
and chemist Franois Pierre Ami Argand
(17501803) demonstrated his Argand
lamp in Paris, which used a cylindrical wick
to improve air circulation within the flame.
Finally, the birth of the light bulb ushered
in the electrical age.
The Straight Line of Light
The discovery of the physical fact that light
waves are propagated in a straight line led
to the development of the camera obscura,
which made it possible to project an inverted mirror image of the surrounding world
through a small hole in a wall and onto a
screen or plate in a darkened room. The
earliest recorded use of this projection technique dates back to the sixth century.
European painters first used lenses to
help them with their work at the beginning
of the Northern Renaissance, around 1430.
Nearly all artists who came into contact
with the technique were excited and influenced by it, but the science of optics never
theless remained a Dutch secret until
about 1480.

Aspects of the Perception of Light

It is still unclear who actually discovered the


camera obscura effect. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384322 BC) noticed images of the sun in shadows cast on the ground
by tree branches. He realized that smaller
gaps between leaves produced more precisely defined images, thus describing the
principle of a modern lens aperture without
knowing the full extent of its ramifications.
A description of a camera obscura can be
found in the writings of the Arab naturalist
Ibn al-Haytham (9651038). In 1544 the
Dutch physicist and mathematician Reiner
Gemma-Frisius (15081555) produced a
drawing similar to the one shown above.
The Italian artist and scientist Leonardo
da Vinci (14521519) also wrote about the
camera obscurainterestingly, using mirror
writing to do so. These writings were considered unreadable at the time and disappeared
from public view until 1797.
Early discoveries also showed that magnifying and burning glasses could be used
to produce sharp, bright images of objects
and scenery. Italian scholar Giovanni
Battista della Porta (15381615) claimed
to have invented the camera obscura without having heard of da Vincis writings; he
maintained that people who were unable to
paint could use the camera obscura to trace
an objects outlines and simply fill in the

colors afterwards. This description could be


considered to be the user manual that Caravaggio and others followed. There is evidence that suggests della Porta instructed
a number of artists in the use of the camera
obscura.
The first design for a portable camera obscura can be found in the papers of German
scholar Athanasius Kircher (16011680),
dating from 1646. This model consisted of
a large wooden box with a trap door in its
floor.
The British physicist and chemist William
Henry Wollastone (17661828) constructed a similar drawing aid which he called the
camera lucida. The French painter JeanAuguste-Dominique Ingres (17801867)
is said to have used this particular device
to produce a number of portraits and drawings.

Caravaggios Use of Light


Mirrors and lenses had already been used
by the art world for more than 170 years
when Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (15711610) produced his best-known
paintings. There is no written evidence
documenting his techniques. The skilled isolation of individual figures and objects in his
scenes is an indication of a highly developed
sense of light and contrast.
It is known that Caravaggio scored lines
on his canvases to indicate the positions of
his protagonists and objects, leading us to
assume that he only required the presence
of each model on a single occasion. Later on,
he used optical tools to complete his paintings. Each detail had to be positioned in sequence in front of the camera lucida, which
resulted in a lack of depth in the finished
paintings.

Painted Light
The following sections explain the importance of light in the world of classical
painting and the way it influenced the
development of photographic lighting.
Paintings are broadly divided into those
painted by sight and those painted by using
some method of optical projectionbe it a
mirror, a lens, or any other type of device.
Strictly speaking, photography was not invented in the nineteenth century, but rather
developed as a way of making permanent
the temporary projected images used by
painters since the fifteenth century. There
is even evidence that this optical view of
the world was known and used by some artists during the Hellenistic and late Roman
periods.

Vermeers Use of Light


The Dutch artist Jan Vermeer (16321675)
and Caravaggio shared not only great talent, but also the fact that they left neither
sketches nor writings to posterity. It is
widely believed that Vermeer used optical
aids while painting, if only because of the
testimony of Anthony van Leeuwenhoek
(16321723), a famous microscopist and
lens maker, who was Vermeers neighbor
and later his executor.
Vermeer often used the halo effects that
are typical of reflected light in his paintings;
the human eye can see this type of effect
only if a scene is viewed through a dirty or
badly ground lens.

17

16

Introduction

The first traditional candles appeared in


the middle of the fifteenth century, and
fireworks became popular in the Baroque
period, especially in Italy. At about the same
time, the first oil lamps were used to cast
diffused light on the streets of London.
Paris followed suit in 1524, but it was only
much later, in 1679, that oil lamps were first
used in Berlin.
In 1654, the Irish chemist Robert Boyle
(16271691) experimented with methane
fermented from organic waste and he began
to research the behavior and interaction
of air and gas. In 1783, the Swiss physicist
and chemist Franois Pierre Ami Argand
(17501803) demonstrated his Argand
lamp in Paris, which used a cylindrical wick
to improve air circulation within the flame.
Finally, the birth of the light bulb ushered
in the electrical age.
The Straight Line of Light
The discovery of the physical fact that light
waves are propagated in a straight line led
to the development of the camera obscura,
which made it possible to project an inverted mirror image of the surrounding world
through a small hole in a wall and onto a
screen or plate in a darkened room. The
earliest recorded use of this projection technique dates back to the sixth century.
European painters first used lenses to
help them with their work at the beginning
of the Northern Renaissance, around 1430.
Nearly all artists who came into contact
with the technique were excited and influenced by it, but the science of optics never
theless remained a Dutch secret until
about 1480.

Aspects of the Perception of Light

It is still unclear who actually discovered the


camera obscura effect. The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384322 BC) noticed images of the sun in shadows cast on the ground
by tree branches. He realized that smaller
gaps between leaves produced more precisely defined images, thus describing the
principle of a modern lens aperture without
knowing the full extent of its ramifications.
A description of a camera obscura can be
found in the writings of the Arab naturalist
Ibn al-Haytham (9651038). In 1544 the
Dutch physicist and mathematician Reiner
Gemma-Frisius (15081555) produced a
drawing similar to the one shown above.
The Italian artist and scientist Leonardo
da Vinci (14521519) also wrote about the
camera obscurainterestingly, using mirror
writing to do so. These writings were considered unreadable at the time and disappeared
from public view until 1797.
Early discoveries also showed that magnifying and burning glasses could be used
to produce sharp, bright images of objects
and scenery. Italian scholar Giovanni
Battista della Porta (15381615) claimed
to have invented the camera obscura without having heard of da Vincis writings; he
maintained that people who were unable to
paint could use the camera obscura to trace
an objects outlines and simply fill in the

colors afterwards. This description could be


considered to be the user manual that Caravaggio and others followed. There is evidence that suggests della Porta instructed
a number of artists in the use of the camera
obscura.
The first design for a portable camera obscura can be found in the papers of German
scholar Athanasius Kircher (16011680),
dating from 1646. This model consisted of
a large wooden box with a trap door in its
floor.
The British physicist and chemist William
Henry Wollastone (17661828) constructed a similar drawing aid which he called the
camera lucida. The French painter JeanAuguste-Dominique Ingres (17801867)
is said to have used this particular device
to produce a number of portraits and drawings.

Caravaggios Use of Light


Mirrors and lenses had already been used
by the art world for more than 170 years
when Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (15711610) produced his best-known
paintings. There is no written evidence
documenting his techniques. The skilled isolation of individual figures and objects in his
scenes is an indication of a highly developed
sense of light and contrast.
It is known that Caravaggio scored lines
on his canvases to indicate the positions of
his protagonists and objects, leading us to
assume that he only required the presence
of each model on a single occasion. Later on,
he used optical tools to complete his paintings. Each detail had to be positioned in sequence in front of the camera lucida, which
resulted in a lack of depth in the finished
paintings.

Painted Light
The following sections explain the importance of light in the world of classical
painting and the way it influenced the
development of photographic lighting.
Paintings are broadly divided into those
painted by sight and those painted by using
some method of optical projectionbe it a
mirror, a lens, or any other type of device.
Strictly speaking, photography was not invented in the nineteenth century, but rather
developed as a way of making permanent
the temporary projected images used by
painters since the fifteenth century. There
is even evidence that this optical view of
the world was known and used by some artists during the Hellenistic and late Roman
periods.

Vermeers Use of Light


The Dutch artist Jan Vermeer (16321675)
and Caravaggio shared not only great talent, but also the fact that they left neither
sketches nor writings to posterity. It is
widely believed that Vermeer used optical
aids while painting, if only because of the
testimony of Anthony van Leeuwenhoek
(16321723), a famous microscopist and
lens maker, who was Vermeers neighbor
and later his executor.
Vermeer often used the halo effects that
are typical of reflected light in his paintings;
the human eye can see this type of effect
only if a scene is viewed through a dirty or
badly ground lens.

17

Photographic Lighting

Photographic Lighting
The subject alone is nothing, but light is everything!

Thus Spoke the King


The following words were written by the
Belgian photographer L onard Misonne
(18701943), often called The King of the
Landscape Photographers, in his hometown of Gilly in 1924:
Take a careful look at light! You know nothing
about it! You photograph objects just as they
are, instead of using the light and the mood of
your surroundings to visualize their potential.
Light illuminates everything and ennobles the
simplest of objects. The subject alone is nothing,
but light is everything! This is why we learn to
harness light. The ability to see is the most important and simultaneously the most difficult
thing for a photographer to learn.
Historical Light
The inventionor, perhaps more appropriately, the discoveryof photography
is attributed to the Frenchman Joseph
Nicphore Nipce (17651833). In 1826,
Nipce made images from his studio window in Gras by exposing a light-sensitive

plate to sunlight over a period of about


eight hours; the resulting images clearly
document the changing position of the sun.
These early photographs were called heliographs, which literally means sun drawing. These images were drawn by the sun
on an asphalt plate that had to be chemically fixed in a sodium bath. These were the
founding moments of modern analog photography.
Many years were to pass before the use
of light to record pictures passed from the
hands of technicians into those of the first
true image-makers. The early photographic
pioneers included the French artist and
chemist Louis Jacques Mand Daguerre
(17871833), the British inventor W illiam
Henry Fox Talbot (18001877), and
French photographer Hippolyte Bayard
(18011887). But none of them could be
considered as true image-makers, and most
of the early pioneers in the field were just
well-to-do hobbyists. Nipce and Daguerre
even set up a partnership intended to
help both men develop and enhance their

skills and techniques, although at the time


Nipces research had progressed much further than Daguerres.
In the early days, it was possible to photograph only stationary subjects, such as
landscapes or city scenes. With exposure
times of up to eight hours, it is no surprise
that portrait photography was not quick to
gain popularity.
Some of the earliest available light photographers were also the pioneers in using

artificial light to capture images. Daguerre


showed artificially lit photographs to his
contemporaries Arago, Biot, and Humboldt
at the Acadmie des Sciences in Paris in
1839, while Fox Talbot took the first photos
with electrically ignited flash in 1851.
Most sources of artificial light were older
than photography itself when physicists
began their dedicated search for white photographic light. In 1812, the German physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck (17701831)

19

Photographic Lighting

Photographic Lighting
The subject alone is nothing, but light is everything!

Thus Spoke the King


The following words were written by the
Belgian photographer L onard Misonne
(18701943), often called The King of the
Landscape Photographers, in his hometown of Gilly in 1924:
Take a careful look at light! You know nothing
about it! You photograph objects just as they
are, instead of using the light and the mood of
your surroundings to visualize their potential.
Light illuminates everything and ennobles the
simplest of objects. The subject alone is nothing,
but light is everything! This is why we learn to
harness light. The ability to see is the most important and simultaneously the most difficult
thing for a photographer to learn.
Historical Light
The inventionor, perhaps more appropriately, the discoveryof photography
is attributed to the Frenchman Joseph
Nicphore Nipce (17651833). In 1826,
Nipce made images from his studio window in Gras by exposing a light-sensitive

plate to sunlight over a period of about


eight hours; the resulting images clearly
document the changing position of the sun.
These early photographs were called heliographs, which literally means sun drawing. These images were drawn by the sun
on an asphalt plate that had to be chemically fixed in a sodium bath. These were the
founding moments of modern analog photography.
Many years were to pass before the use
of light to record pictures passed from the
hands of technicians into those of the first
true image-makers. The early photographic
pioneers included the French artist and
chemist Louis Jacques Mand Daguerre
(17871833), the British inventor W illiam
Henry Fox Talbot (18001877), and
French photographer Hippolyte Bayard
(18011887). But none of them could be
considered as true image-makers, and most
of the early pioneers in the field were just
well-to-do hobbyists. Nipce and Daguerre
even set up a partnership intended to
help both men develop and enhance their

skills and techniques, although at the time


Nipces research had progressed much further than Daguerres.
In the early days, it was possible to photograph only stationary subjects, such as
landscapes or city scenes. With exposure
times of up to eight hours, it is no surprise
that portrait photography was not quick to
gain popularity.
Some of the earliest available light photographers were also the pioneers in using

artificial light to capture images. Daguerre


showed artificially lit photographs to his
contemporaries Arago, Biot, and Humboldt
at the Acadmie des Sciences in Paris in
1839, while Fox Talbot took the first photos
with electrically ignited flash in 1851.
Most sources of artificial light were older
than photography itself when physicists
began their dedicated search for white photographic light. In 1812, the German physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck (17701831)

19

20

Introduction

discovered that Bengal flares had a strong


actinic effect. (The term actinic was first
used in early photography to distinguish
light that would expose the monochrome
films from light that would not.) The British
inventor Sir Humphry Davy (17781829)
discovered that if you pass an electric current through two carbon rods, they become
white hot where they touch each other and
they produce a steady bright light if moved
apart. The American chemist Benjamin
Silliman, Jr. (18161885) used this technique to light a Daguerrotype of a medal
in 1840, and the Austrian photographer
Joseph Berres (18761957) used an electric arc to expose microscope plates in the
same year.
Two French physicists, Hippolyte Fizeau
(18191896) and Michel Foucault (1926
1984), proved the strong actinic effect of
the electric arc, but a number of decades
passed before cable drums and galvanic elements found their way into photographers
studios.
Early Image-Makers
The French photographer Gaspard-Flix
Tournachon (also known as Nadar, 1820
1910) was one of the great pioneers of photographic lighting and used an electric arc
in his studio as early as 1858. He was one
of the first portrait photographers to work
independently of daylight, and legend has
it that the light shining from the windows
at 35 Boulevard des Capucines transformed
the dark street into a brightly lit scene. Apparently, people stopped to marvel at the
great photographer and his artificial sun.
Many members of Parisian high society
were photographed under his famous artificial sun, including Jules Verne; Sarah

Photographic Lighting

ernhardt; Alexandre Dumas and his


B
daughter, the photographer Maxime du
Camp; Charles Cros; and Dr. Josef Maria
Eder.
Arc light made photographers independent of the weather, although Nadars
first experiments produced photos with
extremely hard shadows that made his subjects look grim and ferocious. The first truly
successful artificially lit photographs were
made with the help of a magnesium flame
that produced softer highlight effects. Lateral main lights and magnesium fill lights
were typical of Nadars style at the time.
While most early artificial light sources
were a product of research in physics, the
first purely photographic light source
made of niter, sulfur, and antimony sulfidewas introduced by the British chemist
John Moule in 1857. The mixture was
placed in a hexagonal blue glass lantern and,
once ignited, glowed brightly for about 15
seconds. Moules photogen was cheap and
quickly became popular in studios all over
Europe under various brand names, including White Fire.
These slow-burning mixtures remained
popular alongside faster burning light
sources, such as magnesium, and were still
widely available after the turn of the twentieth century. Photographers who insisted
on shooting indoor society scenes with
flash were often quite unpopular due to the
smoke their equipment produced.
The development of modern flash tubes
was the result of a number of physical experiments that began long before the discovery of photography itself. In 1746, the
Dutch physicist Pier van Musschenbroek
(16921761) discovered the principle of the
Leyden jar, which made it possible to store

and discharge strong electrical currents. All


that remained was to find a way to transform this stored energy into light before
discharging it. The first attempts were made
using carbon arc lamps, and later, in 1855,
the German physicist Heinrich Geiler
(18141879) invented his low-pressure gas
discharge tube, thereby laying the foundation for modern electronic flash units.
In 1834, British scientist Sir Charles
Wheatstone (18021875) had already posited the idea of making rapid movements
visible to the human eye with light produced
by using electricity; but it was the father of
British photography, William Henry Fox
Talbot, who first used an electric flash powered by a battery constructed of a series of
Leyden jars. The flash he produced is said to
have been one millionth of a second longa
miraculous achievement, considering that
Talbot conducted his experiment in 1851,
just 12 years after the discovery of photography itself.
Photography and the Creative Arts
Photography was destined to be used in
conjunction with other creative arts to help
visualize complex relationships. Digital
photography, especially, can be smoothly integrated into many different aspects of the
modern creative visual workflow.
In product development spheres, light
plays a significant role from the earliest
stages of design. Shape and functionality
can often only be established if an object reflects light. But, in order to fully understand
the behavior of photographic and digital
lighting, we first need to look into the subject of painted light.
Ideally, the experience an image-maker
gains while taking photographs based on

paintings will provide a kind of light memory that can then be used as the basis for
creating computer-generated images.
Contemporary Light
Nowadays, we spend increasing amounts of
time working and living in artificial lighta
situation that is sure to permanently influence the way we perceive the world around
us. If this premise is true, then we have to
assume that photographic aesthetics and
the way we use light will change too. Extrapolating this thought leads us to believe
that we will one day no longer know what
natural light looks like and how it behaves.
For example, we could forget the differences between various shades of gray or the
difference between hard and soft light.
The result of such processes could be that
we begin to create images with unnaturalappearing lighting based entirely on our
own experience of how light behaves. This
situation is exacerbated by todays digital
drawing and lighting tools, which allow us
to create entirely artificial, photorealistic
images that are not recognizable as such.
Digital technology allows us to produce
virtually any lighting effect at any stage in
the photographic process, independent of
available light or the photographers own
experience of the nature of light and its behavior.
Another far-reaching consequence of such
developments could be that future artists
who use the art of the twenty-first century
as a reference will be influenced by purely
digital imagery. A photo produced on the basis of digital reference material will contain
only digital objectsand, most importantly, artificial light made entirely of digitally
generated pixels.

21

20

Introduction

discovered that Bengal flares had a strong


actinic effect. (The term actinic was first
used in early photography to distinguish
light that would expose the monochrome
films from light that would not.) The British
inventor Sir Humphry Davy (17781829)
discovered that if you pass an electric current through two carbon rods, they become
white hot where they touch each other and
they produce a steady bright light if moved
apart. The American chemist Benjamin
Silliman, Jr. (18161885) used this technique to light a Daguerrotype of a medal
in 1840, and the Austrian photographer
Joseph Berres (18761957) used an electric arc to expose microscope plates in the
same year.
Two French physicists, Hippolyte Fizeau
(18191896) and Michel Foucault (1926
1984), proved the strong actinic effect of
the electric arc, but a number of decades
passed before cable drums and galvanic elements found their way into photographers
studios.
Early Image-Makers
The French photographer Gaspard-Flix
Tournachon (also known as Nadar, 1820
1910) was one of the great pioneers of photographic lighting and used an electric arc
in his studio as early as 1858. He was one
of the first portrait photographers to work
independently of daylight, and legend has
it that the light shining from the windows
at 35 Boulevard des Capucines transformed
the dark street into a brightly lit scene. Apparently, people stopped to marvel at the
great photographer and his artificial sun.
Many members of Parisian high society
were photographed under his famous artificial sun, including Jules Verne; Sarah

Photographic Lighting

ernhardt; Alexandre Dumas and his


B
daughter, the photographer Maxime du
Camp; Charles Cros; and Dr. Josef Maria
Eder.
Arc light made photographers independent of the weather, although Nadars
first experiments produced photos with
extremely hard shadows that made his subjects look grim and ferocious. The first truly
successful artificially lit photographs were
made with the help of a magnesium flame
that produced softer highlight effects. Lateral main lights and magnesium fill lights
were typical of Nadars style at the time.
While most early artificial light sources
were a product of research in physics, the
first purely photographic light source
made of niter, sulfur, and antimony sulfidewas introduced by the British chemist
John Moule in 1857. The mixture was
placed in a hexagonal blue glass lantern and,
once ignited, glowed brightly for about 15
seconds. Moules photogen was cheap and
quickly became popular in studios all over
Europe under various brand names, including White Fire.
These slow-burning mixtures remained
popular alongside faster burning light
sources, such as magnesium, and were still
widely available after the turn of the twentieth century. Photographers who insisted
on shooting indoor society scenes with
flash were often quite unpopular due to the
smoke their equipment produced.
The development of modern flash tubes
was the result of a number of physical experiments that began long before the discovery of photography itself. In 1746, the
Dutch physicist Pier van Musschenbroek
(16921761) discovered the principle of the
Leyden jar, which made it possible to store

and discharge strong electrical currents. All


that remained was to find a way to transform this stored energy into light before
discharging it. The first attempts were made
using carbon arc lamps, and later, in 1855,
the German physicist Heinrich Geiler
(18141879) invented his low-pressure gas
discharge tube, thereby laying the foundation for modern electronic flash units.
In 1834, British scientist Sir Charles
Wheatstone (18021875) had already posited the idea of making rapid movements
visible to the human eye with light produced
by using electricity; but it was the father of
British photography, William Henry Fox
Talbot, who first used an electric flash powered by a battery constructed of a series of
Leyden jars. The flash he produced is said to
have been one millionth of a second longa
miraculous achievement, considering that
Talbot conducted his experiment in 1851,
just 12 years after the discovery of photography itself.
Photography and the Creative Arts
Photography was destined to be used in
conjunction with other creative arts to help
visualize complex relationships. Digital
photography, especially, can be smoothly integrated into many different aspects of the
modern creative visual workflow.
In product development spheres, light
plays a significant role from the earliest
stages of design. Shape and functionality
can often only be established if an object reflects light. But, in order to fully understand
the behavior of photographic and digital
lighting, we first need to look into the subject of painted light.
Ideally, the experience an image-maker
gains while taking photographs based on

paintings will provide a kind of light memory that can then be used as the basis for
creating computer-generated images.
Contemporary Light
Nowadays, we spend increasing amounts of
time working and living in artificial lighta
situation that is sure to permanently influence the way we perceive the world around
us. If this premise is true, then we have to
assume that photographic aesthetics and
the way we use light will change too. Extrapolating this thought leads us to believe
that we will one day no longer know what
natural light looks like and how it behaves.
For example, we could forget the differences between various shades of gray or the
difference between hard and soft light.
The result of such processes could be that
we begin to create images with unnaturalappearing lighting based entirely on our
own experience of how light behaves. This
situation is exacerbated by todays digital
drawing and lighting tools, which allow us
to create entirely artificial, photorealistic
images that are not recognizable as such.
Digital technology allows us to produce
virtually any lighting effect at any stage in
the photographic process, independent of
available light or the photographers own
experience of the nature of light and its behavior.
Another far-reaching consequence of such
developments could be that future artists
who use the art of the twenty-first century
as a reference will be influenced by purely
digital imagery. A photo produced on the basis of digital reference material will contain
only digital objectsand, most importantly, artificial light made entirely of digitally
generated pixels.

21

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