Chapter 6
Basic Lighting Techniques
Before I start with the textbook diagrams, I really need to cover some basic theory of what good lighting is all about.
Obviously, lighting is necessary to provide enough excitation for the camera CCD to produce an image. As I discussed in detail in Chapter 2, the contrast range needs to be compressed enough to provide some detail (engineers would say signal) in dark areas but not overexpose the highlight areas. I suppose if you did no more than that, you’d be doing better than many; however, this purely technical definition is lacking in soul, and if that’s all you do with your lighting, your pictures will lack soul, too. They’ll be well exposed and the engineers will think they’re great, but it would be ...
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