2 LIGHT: THE BEGINNING
Lighting, like any other language, has a grammar and a vocabulary. Good
photographers need to learn both. Fortunately, photographic lighting is a lot
easier to master than a foreign language. is is because physics, not social
whim, dictates its rules.
e tools we have included in this book are the grammar and vocabu-
lary of light. Whatever we say about specic technique is important only to
the extent that it proves the principles. Please, do not memorize the lighting
diagrams in this book—rather, learn the theories behind them.
It is entirely possible to put a light in exactly the same spot as shown in
one of the diagrams and still make a bad picture—especially if the subject
is not identical to that in the ...