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LESSON 3

LIGHT

Light is an electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The word
usually refers to visible light which is visible to the human eye and is responsible for the sense of sight.
Visible light usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400-700 nanometers (nm), between
the infrared and the ultraviolet. This wavelength means a frequency range of roughly 430 – 750
terahertz.

In Langford’s Basic Photography, visible light is defined as “a stream of energy radiating away from the
sun or similar radiant source,” with four important characteristic

1. Light behaves as if it moves in waves, like ripples crossing the surface of water. Variations in
wavelengths give our eyes the sensation of different colors.

2. Light travels in a straight line. This can be seen in light beams and shafts of sunlight, and the way
that shadows fall.

3. Light moves at great speed (The speed of light in a vacuum is defined to be exactly 299,792,458
m/s (approximately 186,282 miles per second)

4. Light also behaves as if it consists of energy particles or photons. This bleach dyes cause
chemical changes in films and electronic response in digital camera sensors. The more intense
the light, the more photons it contains.

TWO GENERAL (MAIN) SOURCES OF LIGHT

1.Natural Light - our main source of natural light is the sun. the sun is a star that is huge ball of gas.
Explosions at the center produce large amounts of energy. The energy is released as light and heat.
Some of this light reaches Earth and give us daylight. Its light is known as white light. Other forms of
natural light include the moon and the stars. Some animals can produce their own light which is known
as bioluminescence, a chemical reaction that produced in special light producing cells.

Sunlight – is the light and energy that comes form the sun. when this energy reaches the earth’s surface,
it is called insolation. What we experience as sunlight is actually solar radiation. It is the radiation and
heat from the sin in the form of electromagnetic waves.

Kinds of Natural light according to its intensity

1.1 Bright light – It is a sun lighting condition where objects in an open space cast a deep and
uniform or distinct shadow.

1.2 Hazy light – In this sun lighting condition the objects in open space cast a transparent
shadow.

1.3 Dull light – It is a lighting condition of the sun that no more shadow to be cast by an object in
open space.

2. Artificial light – Humans have been able to create and control light for a thousand of years. The
earliest form of lighting was with fire such as burning wood, candles, gas or oil. Candles were made out
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of beeswax or tallow (animal fat). Oil lamps used plant or animal oil and wick to burn. Now the most
convenient source of artificial light is the electric light.

It refers to man-made sources of light used or utilized for indoor photography to align the adverse
lighting condition.

Types of Electric Light

2.1 Tungsten Filament Bulbs – They are cheap to make and easy to use. They contain a thin
metal filament made out of tungsten. This filament becomes very hot when electricity flow
through it and glows yellow-white.

2.2 Neon Lights – it is commonly used in advertising. Neon is a gas that give out light when high-
voltage electricity passed through it. By changing the electric current, up to five different colors
can be produced in the same tube.

2.3 Fluorescent Tubes – they are widely used in the office and in home. Fluorescent tubes are
glass tubes that contain mercury vapor. When an electric current is passed through the mercury
vapor gives off ultraviolet light. This ultraviolet light is absorbed by phosphor powder that coats
the inside of the tube and starts to glow to make a blue-white light. It needs special electronic
starters to produce the high voltage needed to start the light.

SPECTRUM

It is the distribution of colors produced when white light is dispersed by a prism of diffracting.
There is a continuous change in wavelength form red. The longest wavelength to violet the shortest.
Seven colors are usually distinguished: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, the whole
range of electromagnetic radiation with respect to its wavelength or frequency any particular
distribution of electromagnetic radiation often showing lines or bands characteristic of the substance
emitting the radiation of absorbing it.
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Kinds of Visible Spectrum

1. Red Light – The visible red light has a wavelength of about 650 nanometers. At sunrise and sunset, red
or orange colors are present because the wavelengths associated with these colors are less efficiently
scattered by the atmosphere than the shorted wavelength color (blue and purple). A large amount of
blue and violet light has been removed as a result of scattering and the long wave colors. Such as red
and orange are more readily seen.

2. Orange Light – The visible orange light has a wavelength of about 590 nanometers.

3. Yellow Light - The visible yellow light has a wavelength of about 570 nanometers. Low-pressure
sodium lamps, like those used in some parking lots, emit a yellow (wavelength 589 nanometer) light

4. Green Light – the visible green light has a wavelength of about 510 nanometer.

5. Blue Light – the visible blue light has a wavelength of about 475 nanometer. Because the blue
wavelength is shorter in the visible spectrum. They are scattered more efficiently by the molecules in the
atmosphere. This causes the sky to appear blue.

6. Indigo Light – the visible indigo light has wavelength of about 445 nanometer

7. Violet Light- the visible violet light has a wavelength of about 400 nanometer. Within the visible
wavelength spectrum, violet and blue wavelengths are scattered more efficiently than other
wavelengths. Th sky lolls blue, not violet because our eyes are more sensitive to blue light.

PRISM

In optics , a prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. At least,
two of the flat surfaces must have an angle between them. The exact angles between the surfaces
depend on the application. The traditional geometrical shape is that of a triangular prism with a
triangular base and rectangular sies, and in colloquial use prism usually refers to this type.

ADDITIVE COLOR

Additive color is color created by mixing a number of different light colors, with shades of red, green and
blue being the most common primary colors used in additive color system. Additive color is in contrast
to subtractive color, in which colors are created buy subtracting (absorbing) parts of the spectrum of
light present in ordinary white light, by means of colored pigments or dyes, such as those in paints, inks
and the three dye layers I typical color in equal proportions produces an additive secondary color
namely cyan, magenta and yellow which in the form of dyes or pigments are the standard primary
colors in a subtractive color systems.

SUBTRACTIVE COLOR

A subtractive color model explains the mixing of a limited set of dyes, inks, paint pigments or natural
colorants to create a wider range of colors, each the result of partially or completely subtracting that is
absorbing some wavelengths of light and not others. The color that a surface display depends on which
parts of the visible spectrum are not absorbed and therefore remain visible.
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IMPORTANCE OF LIGHT IN PHOTOGRAPHY

Based on the literal meaning photography it was derivative from two Greek words phos means ‘light’
and graphia means to ‘write’ so in short light is very important in the field of photography without this,
exposure is impossible to happened. It is designed to capture or record the image of the object into the
emulsion of film or memory card of digital camera during picture taking and to project the image from
the negative copy to the emulsion of photographic paper as regard to printmaking process.

EXPOSURE

The quantity of light allowed acting on a photographic material, a product of the intensity controlled by
the lens opening and the duration controlled by the shutter speed or enlarging time of light striking the
film or paper. The act of allowing light to reach the light sensitive emulsion of the photographic
sensitized material. Also refers to the amount duration and intensity of light which reaches the film.
Exposure in photography would happened twice around first during photo shoot with the aid of light,
film and camera.

KINDS OF EXPOSURE

1. Under Exposure – This will happen when the quantity of light reaching the emulsion of sensitized
materials are deficient with the needed quantity to make it normal. A negative copy could be considered
under exposed when it has a high contrast image, n the other hand, a photograph may be described as
under exposed when it has a loss o shadow detail, that is, when important dark areas are muddy or
indistinguishable from black, known as blocked – up shadows or sometimes crushed shadows, crushed
blacks or clipped blacks especially in video.

2. Normal Exposure – otherwise known as correct exposure. This result of exposure occurs when the
quantity of light reaching the emulsion of sensitized materials is sufficient not over or under. A negative
and positive could be considered normal exposed when it has normal contrast image.

3. Over Exposure – this could be happened when the quantity of light reaching the emulsion of
sensitized material exceeded with the prescribed amount of light which supposed to be necessary for
better result. A negative copy could be considered over exposed when it has a low contrast image. While
a photograph may be described as over exposed when it has a loss of highlight detail, that is, when
important bright parts of an image are washed out or effectively all white know as brown out highlight
or clipped whites