Light sources

Light sources
A general photographic photographic term applied to any source of light used in photography.
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Light Sources and Approximate Color Tints
Flame - Yellow to Orange
Incandescent Lighting (your house lightbulbs) - Yellow
Sunrise/Sunset - Orangish Red to Yellow
Midday - White
Flash - White
Moonlight - Bluish to Faint Yellow ...

Light sources
A general term applied to any source of light used in photography.

[edit] Light sources
See also: List of light sources
A cloud illuminated by sunlight ...

'Hard' light sources. Harsh source of illumination, giving strong clear-cut shadows. Tends to dramatize form and texture.
Halftone. A method used to reproduce continuous-tone images, representing the image as a series of dots.

Light sources
Different circumstances, different results
Techniques for dealing with varying lighting ...

Different light sources produce different colors. Fluorescent, Sodium, Tungsten, Mercury, Sulfur Lamps and LED all produce different colors, even though we cannot distinguish them at night.

Looking for light sources for your macro flower photos? There's a variety of choices that range from simple, inexpensive jobs to high-end pro rigs. Let's look at some selected products to light up your flora.
Read more ...

All ordinary light sources (lasers are a somewhat different category) follow this rule, which is why light from a flash unit tends to drop off in intensity pretty rapidly.

Are continuous light sources such as these the best choice for a digital studio? If you are on a tight budget, maybe not.

If all of your light sources do not have the same color temperature, you can white balance for one mix but not for all possible combinations. Here Quinlan sits in front of three lights-red,green, and blue.

Use additional light sources in the room.
Take pictures during the day.
Stand farther away from your subject.

Because artificial light sources produce light of a different and specific color, it's important that you match the white balance to the existing light.
Credit: Photo: osevsky Pavel/Shutterstock ...

Light sources for a sensitometer must be carefully chosen, and their characteristics must be precisely known. The intensity of the light must also be known.

Light Box An internally illuminated container that uses indirectly placed light sources to evenly illuminate a translucent diffuser screen on one side of the container.

You attach your camera and two diffused light sources (ordinary floods will work fine) set up on either sides to illuminate your subject and remove shadows. Some enlargers can be used as copy stands.

Can be used over light sources or over the camera lens. Camera lens filters are usually glass either dyed or sandwiching a piece of gelatin in a screw-in filter holder.

Personally, I prefer using monolight strobe units for the following reasons: they are independent light sources and accidental breaking of any one of them would not influence the others; each monolight can provide a substantial light output; ...

You can do this to neutralize areas with different light temperatures in images with mixed light sources, compensating for the tendency for digital capture to accentuate the differences.

Whether you're shooting portraits in your home studio or during a vacation, you should be even more conscious of the light sources available to you than if you were shooting in color.

Inside any building, you will also have the problem of different light sources to contend with from the cold light of the daylight coming in through large windows, to the artificial light of the interior lighting.

Some of the givens are to get far away from other light sources that will impact the image although I have benefitted from street lights that provided subtle fill.

White Balance is an automatic setting on most digital cameras to account for these adjustments in light sources. Cameras come with a variety of pre-programmed settings.

Instead, various indoor artificial light sources tend to be far more directional than people realize. As a result, light is bounced around the room, reflecting off certain surfaces while leaving other surfaces, corners or areas in the dark.

It sounds logical, but because of diffraction that comes into play when the aperture is too small, this may affect the quality of the image, giving the appearance that some objects (especially light sources) are not in focus (but hey, ...

Digital cameras have some really great white balance algorithms that can work wonders when dealing with various light sources.

Natural and many artificial light sources, including the current generation of lithography tools, emit "unpolarized light," meaning that the light consists of many different rays with randomly oriented polarization.

This is a good tutorial, but I wonder if this technique will help in one particular situation: mixed light sources.

They can adjust to different light sources. They do this by either calculating or estimating the color of the ambient light. However, most advanced digital cameras have more than one way to do this.

With nothing to block it and no other light sources, a round image from the lens would be projected on the back wall inside the camera. If we now place a piece of 35mm film in the proper position, it will get exposed by the projected lens image.

Lens hoods are usually used when wanting to take photos of objects near strong light sources, especially sunlight or flash light. It is also often used to prevent any direct sunlight from directly entering the lens (flare).

The best times for landscape photography without additional light sources, or looking at it in a different manner, away from city lights, is either when the moon is full, the two days before the full moon and the two days after the full moon.

Spectrometer displays of various light sources.
© John H. Siskin
All Rights Reserved
3) Fluorescent tube change color over time. Two tubes placed in to the same fixture at the same time may change color in different ways.

Ironically, white balance (the process of compensating for the color characteristics of light sources), is something of a black art. The A350 struggles, which is not uncommon in cameras at this price point.

White Reflector: Anna's large, soft, natural light sources were a little too diffuse, flat, and lacking in contrast. 'To add some life, I used a white reflector, but not positioned too close.

two light sources directed at a subject. With a main and fill light
of equal intensity, a 2:1 ratio is produced; i.e., the main light
illuminates only one side of the subject's face, while the fill light
illuminates both sides.

Investigate possible light sources. Light sources could be simple table top lamps, or you can get a professional studio umbrella set on eBay for some $50 and up.
4
After you assemble all parts, you can experiment and see what works best.

Other light sources include your camera's fill flash and tungsten light. A fill flash can brighten up the scene but be careful not to overexpose areas of the photograph. A diffuser can help solve this problem.

To reduce flare from bright light sources
To provide some measure of protection against knocks and bangs against the lens and if worse comes to worse that you drop the lens, to have it absorb the shock instead of the lens ...

Yourself (the photographer)
The object(s)
The main light sources (the sun, flash, other lighting)
To understand light photography you need to understand what are the effects of the position of light source relative to the photographer and objects.

(1) a visual sensation produced in the brain when the eye views various wavelengths of light; (2) the appearance of objects or light sources described in terms of individual's perception of them, involving hue, lightness, and saturation for objects, ...

There isn't much you can do about metamerism except to attempt to control your light sources. Full spectrum lights--near daylight in temperature if possible--are your best bet for minimizing the colors that will fool your camera.

White Balance - A function on the digital camera (whether manual or to compensate for different colors of light being emitted by different light sources. It refers to the relative intensity of colors in your image.

Camera feature to compensate automatically for light sources of different color temperatures (e.g. sunlight, cloudy, fluorescent, and incandescent).
Wet Connector
A connector that can be unplugged and reconnected underwater.

White Balance A function on the camera to compensate for the different colors of light being emitted by different light sources. Wi-Fi Refers to wireless technology and wireless communication.

-Type A film - color film balanced to artificial light sources at a color temperature of 3400K.
-Type B film - color film balanced to artificial light sources at a color temperature of 3200K.

Most of the primary light sources you'll encounter in photography - sun, light bulbs, strobes - are unpolarized. That is, the EM waves that make up the light travel equally and randomly in all directions away from the source.

Placing the filter out there on the end of the lens will oft-times allow direct sunlight (or other bright light sources) to fall on the filter surface, decreasing contrast and perhaps producing flares, ...

Front Lighting is a lighting technique in which the light sources (natural or artificial) are in front of the subject. Unfortunately, Front Lighting can result in flat images, particularly in portraits.
F-stop ...

Color film that is color balanced for scenes illuminated by artificial light sources at a color temperature of 3200K, typically tungsten and household lamps. This is the more commonly used of the two types: A and B.
Nikonians Photo Glossary ...

We'll tell you how you can take better pictures by taking advantage of the light sources you have available to you -- and by using a few tips and tricks when the lighting is less than ideal. See more »
5 Tips for Scanning Old Photos ...

Gels not only correct the color of light sources relative to one another or the film, they can also be used to distort light for dramatic or artistic purposes. Thus far, no permit is required. Video tip, see: White Balance.

In a night scene you are inevitably going to have quite a lot of black and there will usually be light sources in the scene which will normally be burned out white, at least in the center, ...

Automatic White Balance compensates for different colour light sources, e.g. daylight, tungsten light, fluorescent light etc..
B & W
Universal abbreviation for Black and White.

When shooting reflective objects, the key is to place light sources in such a way that they help you sculpt highlights and shadows.

Color Temperature - Measurement of color expressed in Kelvin. Different light sources result in different temperatures.
Compact Flash - This is used as storage and is compatible with almost all digital cameras.

Electromagnetic radiation emanating from light sources or reflected from non-radiating objects. Perceived by our eyes and processed in the brain.

New Multi-area White Balance also makes images look more natural by detecting scenes with two different light sources and applying area-specific white balance correction.

Tungsten film
Colour film balanced for non-daylight sources (usually studio-type tungsten lamps) of 3200 or 3400K.
(see Colour balance) ...

A function on the camera to compensate for different colors of light being emitted by different light sources.
Wide-angle lens:
A camera lens with a focal length less than the diagonal of the film format it's being used for.

See also: Light source, Light, Camera, Photograph, Image