Week 8: Looking at Light
Looking at Light: The light that is created and generated by various objects in our surroundings allows us to see, record and capture images of the world. In terms of manipulation and display of images, our knowledge of light and how we use it affects the quality and expressive power of the images that we create or capture.
Vidi: We can distinguish differences between very similar concepts such as looking, seeing and observing. Looking is the idea of arranging or finding what we can/want to see. Seeing itself is the act of receiving light energy and converting it into nerve impulses. Observing is the idea that we then analyse or interpret the nerve impulses in terms of various objects. For example mirrors or effects such as a mirage. From a young age we begin to grow content with the world and slowly stop putting an emphasis on the observation stage until we notice an important change. Artists, photographers and the like learn to observe and by doing so become more aware of their surroundings.
The Ayres Rock: As the brightness of the sunlight that hits the rock changes throughout the day, so to does the colour and due to this it changes the appearance and the general mood set by an image that captures this scene.
Sources: https://emmakellydooz.wordpress.com/tag/ayers-rock/
http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/110340/20140911/beautiful-sunset-in-ayers-rock-australia.htm
http://www.davidreneke.com/astro-events/
In the Cold Light of Day: The position of the sun at different points of the day is the factor than has the greatest effect on natural lighting and as such has the ability to change the appearance of any object.
Who Loves the Sun? As the run rises and sets you will see light changes in a variety of ways including a pronounced shift in colour. Both early and late in the day the suns position is low and as such objects will be casting long shadows. Around mid-day the sunlight is sometimes called "white" light as it is seemingly colourless and contains the most even mix of each and every colour in the spectrum. At this point objects will cast short shadows against the sunlight. Below you will see examples of the sun at different heights.
Pre Dawn: http://eecue.com/p/30294/Pre-dawn-Above-Palm-Springs.html
Pre-Dawn features a yellow/orange sky.
Morning: http://bo0xvn.deviantart.com/art/Morning-sun-178239743
The morning has the yellow/orange sky turning blue.
Mid-Day: http://inanutshell.ca/lifestyle/midday-musings-2/
During mid-day you see the idea of "white"light.Twilight: http://poetrypoem.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?sitename=poetessktj&displaypoem=t&item=poetry&poemnumber=1044029
During Twlight you will see much deeper tones and a heavy contrast.
Cloudy Mid-Day: On cloudy days, light will often appear as white but in reality the light from the sun actually has a bluish tint in this scenario. Clouds actually act to soften and diffuse light which leads to a much more even spread.
Source: From Lectures
Diffuse/Shaded Light: Diffuse or shaded light is often used for portraits as it reduces brightness whilst illuminating the subject much more evenly.
The Play of Light: The much more obvious and dramatic displays of the change in quality of light appear during the sunrise and sunset. This "play" of light is the result of the changing nature of three basic ideas. Direction, colour and contrast.
Light Play on the Grand Canyon:
Source: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/morning-light-shadow-play-grand-canyon-national-park-shawn-obrien.html
Direction: The direction in which light will strike an object/subject is very important. Subjects may be illuminated by a number of things such as side-lighting, front-lighting or back-lighting.
Front, Side and Back Lighting: Front lighting is the name for when the source of light is behind the person observing an object or scene. Using this allows the light to cover the subject evenly and by doing so reveals a lot of detail about the subject. Side lighting is used to create long shadows which in turn are used to emphasize the texture of an image, which in turn gives a greater sense of shape, dimension and depth. In order to get the most dramatic effect you can use back-lighting. In back-lighting the source is originating from behind the subject. This creates silhouettes and a number of other effects.
Front-Lighting: Here is an example of front-lighting from the lecture. Observe the rich saturated colours visible on a clear sunny day.
Back-Lighting: Below is an image from the lecture. The image is a due of fishing boats resting on the water. With the use of back-light skimming off of the surface there is an effect that seemingly creates many tiny points of light that give the water an almost shimmering appearance.
When back-light is passed through a translucent object/subject there is the effect of a glow of colour from the object. This can create the stained glass window effect.
Contrast: A high contrast light is an intense and directional light that casts shadows with very hard edges. On a normal sunny day the sun gives off "hard" or high contrast lighting. The brightness of this light produces very sharp details and rich saturated colours as well as the creation of strong imposing shadows. More softer, low-contrast light appears on an overcast day. When clouds scatter the light from the sun it's more evenly spread and less bright. In low-contrast light, you can see clear differences between tones blending casually. This in turn creates a delicate mood.
High and Low Contrast:
Source: http://www.atpm.com/9.07/design.shtml
Contrast vs Detail:
In a high contrast image (top), contrast reduction will fill in shadows and as such reveal hidden details. Image from lectures.
Colour Film: The human eye will attempt to adapt to shifts in colour. The eyes will re-calibrate automatically so as to make the perceived shifts approach white balance. Film is much more sensitive than the eye to shifts in the colour of light. Film's response to this is having colour fixed at manufacture. Due to this daylight film produces pictures with a orange tint which lies underneath tungsten light sources and a greenish tint underneath fluorescent light. The shifts in colour can be dealt with by way of image processing.
The Colour of Light:
Below is an example of daylight film in response to different lighting conditions. The image is from the lecture.
Colour: The human eye is naturally attracted to colour. More so to bright or light colours. Colour as such has a powerful impact on the mood of an image or scene. Subconsciously composers or artists think about colour and use the human appeal to the masses.
Yellow as a colour can add/create a bright tone. A happy and cheerful feeling. Red is often used to make things more exciting and is a warm colour. Greens and browns are what most people refer to as restful colours and are associated with nature and earth. Moody blue is a more calm, and cool feeling whilst a not so moody blue would create a more colourful contrasting backdrop to draw attention to subjects in the image.
The Colourise Effects:
Observation: You can make your images a lot more expressive in a number of ways. One way to do this is to exercise control of lighting. Below you will see a picture of a small palm tree. Notice the pattern and shadow on the palm.
Selection: The pattern visible in the front-lit palm is selected by zooming in (see below). The shadow from the right hand side of the palm has been used to soften the cropping of the image.
Modification: Flipping about the vertical axis and re-colouring with a more saturated green/yellow makes the palm look back-lit. It is as if we are viewing it from the other side.
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