The Art of Photographic Lighting

Using Light Creatively to Get Better Photos

Eib Eibelshaeuser

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 photo-graphic experiments from his studio win-dow 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 manipu-lation of light on the part of the photog-rapher, 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 LightThe earliest photographersor perhaps we should call them users of the photographic mediumwere simple reproductionists who didnt (or couldnt) compose their im-ages. 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 complete-ly 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 veri-table 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 com-pose with light or produce successful pho-tographs. 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. TechnologyOver 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 conclu-sion.

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 con-sider light in the context of the overall pho-tographic apparatus to be more comparable with painting than with the movies.

Light Is PerceptionSince the middle of the eighteenth century, humanists have reacted to Galileos materi-alist 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, there-by 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 perspec-tive. Light is the medium in which we expe-rience, develop ideas, and gain knowledge.

Wishing you dramatic lighting,Eib Eibelshaeuser

Light Is Perception 11

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 photo-graphic experiments from his studio win-dow 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 manipu-lation of light on the part of the photog-rapher, 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 LightThe earliest photographersor perhaps we should call them users of the photographic mediumwere simple reproductionists who didnt (or couldnt) compose their im-ages. 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 complete-ly 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 veri-table 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 com-pose with light or produce successful pho-tographs. 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. TechnologyOver 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 conclu-sion.

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 con-sider light in the context of the overall pho-tographic apparatus to be more comparable with painting than with the movies.

Light Is PerceptionSince the middle of the eighteenth century, humanists have reacted to Galileos materi-alist 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, there-by 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 perspec-tive. Light is the medium in which we expe-rience, develop ideas, and gain knowledge.

Wishing you dramatic lighting,Eib Eibelshaeuser

Light Is Perception 11

15

Aspects of the Perception of LightSome 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 LightThis book deals mostly with how artificial light can be manipulated and used in pho-tography, but it also addresses how natural sunlight behaves and can be used in various contexts.

Appropriately, Heinrich Kramer and Wal-ter 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 God-given.

Sunlight has played a significant role in the six-million-year evolution of our cur-rent 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 per-ceive 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 tech-nology. 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 mil-lion 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 perspec-tive, human beings have been controlling and using fire to their own advantage for ap-proximately one million years.

In the course of the evolutionary process, human senses have stored certain experi-ences 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 fundamen-tal 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 percep-tual 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 il-lustrations show the same hollow lit from above, but the one on the left has been ro-tated 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 disso-nance for the viewer.

Artificial LightThe presence of fire in nature nurtured the curiosity of early human beings. Scientists found stone lamps that date from approxi-mately 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 enter-tainment for the rich and not as a source of light.

Aspects of the Perception of Light

15

Aspects of the Perception of LightSome 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 LightThis book deals mostly with how artificial light can be manipulated and used in pho-tography, but it also addresses how natural sunlight behaves and can be used in various contexts.

Appropriately, Heinrich Kramer and Wal-ter 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 God-given.

Sunlight has played a significant role in the six-million-year evolution of our cur-rent 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 per-ceive 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 tech-nology. 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 mil-lion 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 perspec-tive, human beings have been controlling and using fire to their own advantage for ap-proximately one million years.

In the course of the evolutionary process, human senses have stored certain experi-ences 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 fundamen-tal 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 percep-tual 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 il-lustrations show the same hollow lit from above, but the one on the left has been ro-tated 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 disso-nance for the viewer.

Artificial LightThe presence of fire in nature nurtured the curiosity of early human beings. Scientists found stone lamps that date from approxi-mately 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 enter-tainment for the rich and not as a source of light.

Aspects of the Perception of Light

16 17

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 LightThe 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 invert-ed 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 tech-nique 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 influ-enced by it, but the science of optics never-theless remained a Dutch secret until about 1480.

It is still unclear who actually discovered the camera obscura effect. The Greek philoso-pher Aristotle (384322 BC) noticed imag-es of the sun in shadows cast on the ground by tree branches. He realized that smaller gaps between leaves produced more pre-cisely 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 consid-ered unreadable at the time and disappeared from public view until 1797.

Early discoveries also showed that mag-nifying 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 with-out 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 Cara-vaggio and others followed. There is evi-dence that suggests della Porta instructed a number of artists in the use of the camera obscura.

The first design for a portable camera ob-scura 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) construct-ed a similar drawing aid which he called the camera lucida. The French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (17801867) is said to have used this particular device to produce a number of portraits and draw-ings.

Painted LightThe following sections explain the im-portance 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 in-vented 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 art-ists during the Hellenistic and late Roman periods.

Caravaggios Use of LightMirrors and lenses had already been used by the art world for more than 170 years when Michelangelo Merisi da Caravag-gio (15711610) produced his best-known paintings. There is no written evidence documenting his techniques. The skilled iso-lation 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 paint-ings. Each detail had to be positioned in se-quence in front of the camera lucida, which resulted in a lack of depth in the finished paintings.

Vermeers Use of LightThe Dutch artist Jan Vermeer (16321675) and Caravaggio shared not only great tal-ent, 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.

Aspects of the Perception of LightIntroduction

16 17

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 LightThe 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 invert-ed 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 tech-nique 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 influ-enced by it, but the science of optics never-theless remained a Dutch secret until about 1480.

It is still unclear who actually discovered the camera obscura effect. The Greek philoso-pher Aristotle (384322 BC) noticed imag-es of the sun in shadows cast on the ground by tree branches. He realized that smaller gaps between leaves produced more pre-cisely 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 consid-ered unreadable at the time and disappeared from public view until 1797.

Early discoveries also showed that mag-nifying 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 with-out 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 Cara-vaggio and others followed. There is evi-dence that suggests della Porta instructed a number of artists in the use of the camera obscura.

The first design for a portable camera ob-scura 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) construct-ed a similar drawing aid which he called the camera lucida. The French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (17801867) is said to have used this particular device to produce a number of portraits and draw-ings.

Painted LightThe following sections explain the im-portance 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 in-vented 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 art-ists during the Hellenistic and late Roman periods.

Caravaggios Use of LightMirrors and lenses had already been used by the art world for more than 170 years when Michelangelo Merisi da Caravag-gio (15711610) produced his best-known paintings. There is no written evidence documenting his techniques. The skilled iso-lation 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 paint-ings. Each detail had to be positioned in se-quence in front of the camera lucida, which resulted in a lack of depth in the finished paintings.

Vermeers Use of LightThe Dutch artist Jan Vermeer (16321675) and Caravaggio shared not only great tal-ent, 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.

Aspects of the Perception of LightIntroduction

19

Photographic LightingThe subject alone is nothing, but light is everything!

Thus Spoke the KingThe following words were written by the Belgian photographer Lonard Misonne (18701943), often called The King of the Landscape Photographers, in his home-town 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 im-portant and simultaneously the most difficult thing for a photographer to learn.

Historical LightThe inventionor, perhaps more appro-priately, the discoveryof photography is attributed to the Frenchman Joseph Nicphore Nipce (17651833). In 1826, Nipce made images from his studio win-dow 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 helio-graphs, which literally means sun draw-ing. These images were drawn by the sun on an asphalt plate that had to be chemi-cally fixed in a sodium bath. These were the founding moments of modern analog pho-tography.

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 William 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 fur-ther than Daguerres.

In the early days, it was possible to pho-tograph 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 pho-tographers 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 pho-tographic light. In 1812, the German physi-cist Thomas Johann Seebeck (17701831)

Photographic Lighting

19

Photographic LightingThe subject alone is nothing, but light is everything!

Thus Spoke the KingThe following words were written by the Belgian photographer Lonard Misonne (18701943), often called The King of the Landscape Photographers, in his home-town 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 im-portant and simultaneously the most difficult thing for a photographer to learn.

Historical LightThe inventionor, perhaps more appro-priately, the discoveryof photography is attributed to the Frenchman Joseph Nicphore Nipce (17651833). In 1826, Nipce made images from his studio win-dow 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 helio-graphs, which literally means sun draw-ing. These images were drawn by the sun on an asphalt plate that had to be chemi-cally fixed in a sodium bath. These were the founding moments of modern analog pho-tography.

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 William 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 fur-ther than Daguerres.

In the early days, it was possible to pho-tograph 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 pho-tographers 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 pho-tographic light. In 1812, the German physi-cist Thomas Johann Seebeck (17701831)

Photographic Lighting

20 21

and discharge strong electrical currents. All that remained was to find a way to trans-form 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 founda-tion for modern electronic flash units.

In 1834, British scientist Sir Charles Wheatstone (18021875) had already pos-ited 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 pow-ered 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 photog-raphy itself.

Photography and the Creative ArtsPhotography was destined to be used in conjunction with other creative arts to help visualize complex relationships. Digital photography, especially, can be smoothly in-tegrated 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 re-flects light. But, in order to fully understand the behavior of photographic and digital lighting, we first need to look into the sub-ject of painted light.

Ideally, the experience an image-maker gains while taking photographs based on

paintings will provide a kind of light mem-ory that can then be used as the basis for creating computer-generated images.

Contemporary LightNowadays, we spend increasing amounts of time working and living in artificial lighta situation that is sure to permanently influ-ence 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. Ex-trapolating 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 differ-ences 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 unnatural-appearing 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 be-havior.

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 ba-sis of digital reference material will contain only digital objectsand, most important-ly, artificial light made entirely of digitally generated pixels.

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 cur-rent 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 tech-nique to light a Daguerrotype of a medal in 1840, and the Austrian photographer Joseph Berres (18761957) used an elec-tric arc to expose microscope plates in the same year.

Two French physicists, Hippolyte Fizeau (18191896) and Michel Foucault (19261984), proved the strong actinic effect of the electric arc, but a number of decades passed before cable drums and galvanic ele-ments found their way into photographers studios.

Early Image-MakersThe French photographer Gaspard-Flix Tournachon (also known as Nadar, 18201910) was one of the great pioneers of pho-tographic 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. Ap-parently, people stopped to marvel at the great photographer and his artificial sun.

Many members of Parisian high society were photographed under his famous ar-tificial sun, including Jules Verne; Sarah

Bernhardt; Alexandre Dumas and his daughter, the photographer Maxime du Camp; Charles Cros; and Dr. Josef Maria Eder.

Arc light made photographers indepen-dent of the weather, although Nadars first experiments produced photos with extremely hard shadows that made his sub-jects 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. Lat-eral 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 sourcemade of niter, sulfur, and antimony sul-fidewas 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, includ-ing 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 twen-tieth 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 ex-periments that began long before the dis-covery 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

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and discharge strong electrical currents. All that remained was to find a way to trans-form 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 founda-tion for modern electronic flash units.

In 1834, British scientist Sir Charles Wheatstone (18021875) had already pos-ited 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 pow-ered 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 photog-raphy itself.

Photography and the Creative ArtsPhotography was destined to be used in conjunction with other creative arts to help visualize complex relationships. Digital photography, especially, can be smoothly in-tegrated 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 re-flects light. But, in order to fully understand the behavior of photographic and digital lighting, we first need to look into the sub-ject of painted light.

Ideally, the experience an image-maker gains while taking photographs based on

paintings will provide a kind of light mem-ory that can then be used as the basis for creating computer-generated images.

Contemporary LightNowadays, we spend increasing amounts of time working and living in artificial lighta situation that is sure to permanently influ-ence 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. Ex-trapolating 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 differ-ences 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 unnatural-appearing 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 be-havior.

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 ba-sis of digital reference material will contain only digital objectsand, most important-ly, artificial light made entirely of digitally generated pixels.

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 cur-rent 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 tech-nique to light a Daguerrotype of a medal in 1840, and the Austrian photographer Joseph Berres (18761957) used an elec-tric arc to expose microscope plates in the same year.

Two French physicists, Hippolyte Fizeau (18191896) and Michel Foucault (19261984), proved the strong actinic effect of the electric arc, but a number of decades passed before cable drums and galvanic ele-ments found their way into photographers studios.

Early Image-MakersThe French photographer Gaspard-Flix Tournachon (also known as Nadar, 18201910) was one of the great pioneers of pho-tographic 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. Ap-parently, people stopped to marvel at the great photographer and his artificial sun.

Many members of Parisian high society were photographed under his famous ar-tificial sun, including Jules Verne; Sarah

Bernhardt; Alexandre Dumas and his daughter, the photographer Maxime du Camp; Charles Cros; and Dr. Josef Maria Eder.

Arc light made photographers indepen-dent of the weather, although Nadars first experiments produced photos with extremely hard shadows that made his sub-jects 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. Lat-eral 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 sourcemade of niter, sulfur, and antimony sul-fidewas 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, includ-ing 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 twen-tieth 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 ex-periments that began long before the dis-covery 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

Photographic LightingIntroduction