Speedliter’s Handbook: Learning to Craft Light with Canon Speedlites

Chapter 3. Mechanics of Light

COLOR...PRIMARILY 39

TAKING COLOR’S TEMPERATURE 40

INCIDENCE INCIDENTALLY 42

SOFT LIGHT PROVES THAT SIZE IS RELATIVE 44

FALLING OFF, OR HOW TO LOVE THE INVERSE SQUARE LAW 46

THINKING ABOUT FLASH-TO-SUBJECT DISTANCE AS STOPS 48

Figure 3.1. Three Speedlites, one each gelled with pure red, pure green, and pure blue, are fired into the corner of my studio ceiling—as a demonstration of the additive primaries. At the center, you can see patches of cyan, magenta, and yellow—the subtractive primaries, which are created when red, green, and blue merge.

The Short Version

Light follows some pretty specific rules about how ...