Characteristics of light
The four characteristics of light, quality (hard or soft), direction (frontal, side, back, underlit, top lit, etc.), source (available light, additional lights), and colour, can be manipulated by the lighting cameraman to achieve the precise requirements for a specific shot. The auto features on a camera are often unable to discriminate the priorities of a shot and must be overridden, so likewise, to simply accept the effects of a found lighting situation is to disregard the most powerful part of image making. Available or ‘found’ light is any combination of sunlight and/or artificial light that illuminates any potential location.
Quality
The quality of light produced by a natural or an artificial light source is often ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access