What’s light for, in photography, and what does it do, in images?

In photography you can learn to apply lights, natural and artificial, by rote. That’s to say, you can learn the set-pieces, the standard set-ups, in what circumstances and for which types of work to apply each one.

But some of us don’t learn well by rote. We need an explanation of the fundamental principles at work in lighting. And some of us would find a fundamental understanding of light and lighting more satisfying, particularly if it becomes so much second nature that we learn to apply it naturally, fluidly expressing elegant lighting solutions for each scene that we shoot, drawing simply on fundamental principles.

The medieval master mason was able to draught the plans for his cathedrals, and scribe the templates of their carved stones, using just simple compass and square, applying his fundamental knowledge of measure and proportion, step and repeat.

So let’s start learning what light is for in images, what it does and what we can do with it.

Next: Theory of light 2: modelling three dimensions

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