Lighting Archives - Page 2 of 4

Kelvin

What Does the Term Kelvin Mean When Talking About Photography? When talking about photography the term ‘kelvin’ refers to the unit of measurement of color temperature. Every source of light emits light at a specific color temperature which can be measured in degrees kelvin or ‘K’. The color temperature of a light source varies from red to blue: Red or ‘warm’ colours are created at low color temperature values, for example a candle which is roughly 1500K. Blue or ‘cold’ colours are created at high color temperature values, for example a camera flash unit is roughly 5000K. Adjusting the white …

Key Light

What is a Key Light and how is it used when taking photos? When talking about photography the term ‘key light’ refers to the primary source of artificial light being used when shooting a scene or subject. In setups which comprise of more than one source of artificial light the key light is usually the light source which has the largest overall effect on the image subject, highlighting it’s dimensions and overall form. As such the term key light doesn’t refer to a specific type of lighting equipment, it can be anything from a lamp to a camera mounted flash …

Kicker

What Is A Kicker In Photography? A kicker is a lighting term that means the same thing as “rim light”. Please see the rim light glossary terms for more details on why you might want to use a rim light and exactly what it does. Additional Reading

Light Meter

What Is a Light Meter and How Is It Used When Taking Photographs? A ‘light meter’ is a handheld device that used measure or ‘meter’ light. A light meter can read the ambient light in a scene, or the direct light from a light source and calculate the correct shutter speed and aperture values required to capture an accurate exposure. These days nearly all cameras have built in light meters and a number of metering ‘modes’ to calculate exposure settings. A handheld light meter might be used when shooting with older photography equipment or when scouting a location before shooting …

Light Tent

What Is a Light Tent and How Is It Used When Taking Photographs? A light tent is a translucent fabric tent which diffuses incoming light, any objects placed within the tent will not exhibit surface reflection. If you have ever wanted to take a photograph of a highly reflective object without capturing any reflections from the object’s surface then a light tent would help you to achieve the image you require. Light tents are often used when photographing jewellery or precious stones for product catalogues. Using macrophotography techniques along with a light tent can produce extremely detailed images without distracting …

Light Trail

What Is a Light Trail When Talking About Taking Photographs? The term ‘light trail’ refers to the phenomenon caused by photographing a moving source of light using an exposure setting which is to slow to freeze it in place. The result is a point of light with a trail stretching from its final position within the image to its point of origin. One example of a light trail is the ‘star trails’ captured when taking a long exposure of the night sky in astrophotography. Light trails give an image a sense of speed and movement and require the use of …

Low Key

What Does Low Key Mean When Talking About Taking Photos? Have you ever heard a photographer describe a photograph as being ‘low key’ and wondered exactly what they meant? When talking about photographs a low key picture is a picture which contains a lot of shadows and darker tones, and therefore very little in the way of highlights and visible detail. Low key images often appear dark and brooding with an almost palpable sense of menace, but can also be extremely powerful. Low key images also often leave a lot of detail hidden in the shadows, allowing the viewers imagination to …

Narrow Lighting

What Is Narrow Lighting and How Is It Used When Taking Photographs? Narrow lighting is a lighting technique commonly used in portrait photography, and is used to control how wide a subject appears to the viewer. For the technique to work the main light source of a scene must be illuminating the side of the subjects face which is facing away from the camera, doing so places the side of the nose facing the camera in shadow which creates the illusion of the subject being narrower in appearance. Narrow lighting can be achieved by careful placement of supplementary light sources or …

Natural Light

What Is Natural Light and How Can It Be Used When Taking Photographs? Depending on the scene you are shooting ‘Natural light’ can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. The term natural light refers to any natural sources of light illumination a scene i.e. any light that is not artificially created. The most obvious source of ambient light is the Sun, at sunrise and sunset it will bring a scene alive with warm tones punctuated by subtle shadows and soft detail, at high noon it will wash out your photographs with overwhelming highlights and deep impenetrable shadows. the …

Photo Slave

What is a photo slave is and how it is used when taking photographs? When talking about photography, specifically lighting, a ‘photo slave’ is a flash unit set to slave mode which will fire when it detects the output of another flash unit. a photo slave can be triggered by a cameras built in flash unit, or another flash unit in a group when you don’t have enough flash receivers for the lighting setup you are using. The biggest limitation of photo slaves and slave mode is that they require direct line of sight between the slave unit and another …