Light Science and Magic, 3rd Edition

3

The Management of Reflection and the Family of Angles

In the last chapter we looked at light and how it behaves. We learned that the three most important qualities of any light source are its brightness, color, and contrast. We also learned that the subject, not just the light, has a major influence on lighting. A subject can transmit, absorb, or reflect the light that strikes it.

Of the three ways the subject can affect the lighting, reflection is the most visible. Highly transparent subjects have minimal effect on light, so they tend to be ...