Exposure and Lighting For Digital Photographers Only

Chapter 1. THE NATURE OF LIGHT

The art of photography is often referred to as painting with light. Although the subject of a photograph such as figure 1-1 may appear to be a landscape, it's the light reflected from that landscape that makes the photograph, not the subject itself. Without light, you simply can't make a photograph.

Recording Reflected Light

Simply stated, capturing a photograph is recording the light reflected from a scene by means of a camera, which uses a lens to focus an image onto a photosensitive recording medium. For generations, that medium was photographic film, which created an image through chemical reactions. Now, digital image sensors are rapidly replacing chemical-based film as the preferred photographic medium, and photographers typically record images as computer files instead of film negatives. Although the photographic recording medium is new, the essence of photography is the same — it's still about recording reflected light.

Cameras have come a long way over the years. Early cameras, such as the one in figure 1-2 were little more than a lens holder in the front, a film holder in the back, and a flexible bellows in between that created a light-tight enclosure. The technical process of making a photograph with such a camera was arduous. The introduction of the box camera in figure 1-3 reduced the size of the contraption so that it was easier to transport ...