We were fortunate to have had Charlie Potts as an instructor. Yes, it still relevant and as he would have said "the law of light is eternal." Good information. Lynne McCready, Art Center Photo class of 1985.
The BBC did a great series explaining how painters and photographers use Chiaroscuro to make the available light on a mediums surface appear to have more contrast than technically available. This mimics what the eye does as it interprets tone. (Many optical allusions use this to good effect) You alluded to this in the video without actually explaining the affect. So I thought you may want to check it out. Sorry, I forget the name of the series. But it's the best thing I have ever watched on this subject. It was made about 2 years ago and should be available on iplayer still.
I think the pithiest most informative talk I've seen. I've read and studied a lot but don't remember "incident highlight" which makes perfect sense. Now part of my nomenclature! This is wonderful. Thanks so much for putting this out there.
Great video! Already waiting for the next one. I already knew how to make it, but no one ever explained me why to make it. Thanks for solving this out.
I came here to see a spherical diffuser but I’m actually glad I stayed after I saw it wasn’t what I thought I was looking for. This video turned out to be a nice surprise. You have a great teaching style I subscribed
Learned quite a bit today about my approach with natural light which cannot be moved (though the camera can be re-positioned). Thank you for the instructional.
Bravo and Thanks for sharing the building blocks of photography. Learning and applying knowledge of this nature can define the difference between taking a photograph or making art.
Very clear and concise. Well done as usual. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. The scope of the videos on this channel is pretty cool; from a massive shoot with road closures and multiple cameras, to a white ball and a couple of lights. Neat!
Excellent video, with the super simple subject of the sphere, the idea of doing a cube and a cilinder is great. I wish my teachers had done something like this when I studied Photo....
awesome series! Couple weeks ago I had a shoot where I could only use some floodlights and I had no clue how to use them, so I'm very excited about this!
Well done video. Thanks! I'd like to see an explanation about the difference between diffused and specular light. If you can fit that in I'd appreciate it a lot. Thanks again!
Great instructional Jay! I felt like I was getting some much needed 101 with this video, can't wait to watch the other ones. I did a modeling gig with a national brand once, and the shoot area was found by using a location scout - maybe a great video idea would be to talk about how to be a location scout (getting into the biz), and using location scouts i.e. costs etc. Keep on Taping!
You are very welcome! You might like the rest of our Laws of Light series: th-cam.com/users/TheSlantedLenssearch?view_as=subscriber&query=laws+of+light
Just a quick question, maybe I missed it in the video, what is the difference between Highlight and Incident Highlight? Is the incident highlight the brightest part of the highlight, indicative of the light source INSIDE the modifier? Thanks in advance.
I have added that to our list. You might want to check out our camera basics series: th-cam.com/users/TheSlantedLenssearch?view_as=subscriber&query=camera+basics
Dean Collins says much the same using different terms. In this area it is difficult to say anything new, it just how you say it. And I love JP's tutorials. I disagree where he seems to concentrate on studio lighting. This is why most who do not do studio tend to ignore this stuff. These fundamentals are crucial to landscape and nature photographers. You may not be able to change where the source of light comes from, but you can certainly change your point of view, or the timing. The best nature photographers were very aware of all this. The rest are hack snap-shooters taking whatever happens to present itself when they are standing wherever. The 49th million boring animal/landscape image suddenly becomes amazing when you take the time to work the light. Change your position, or wait till the light changes. Every genre of photographer needs to understand this. Problem is it takes effort.
Thanks, Herman. A natural light photographer commented that he had been able to use this to his advantage. I think it's great when photogs take solid knowledge and use it in the way that best benefits them. Light is light, no matter where it comes from. Thanks for watching.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been looking for something like this for about a year. I just kept hearing on the internet you need to learn to see light. You need to learn to see light. I was a bit puzzled. I see light all the time. How do you learn to "see" light. I just had my first lesson. Thanks again!
Hi J.P. Morgan! Fantastic video instruction! Would you please be so kind as to provide us a link as to where you obtained: 1) Sphere 2)Cube and 3) Cylinder for the Laws of Light Series? Would be great for those of us who would like to practice & see for ourselves by our own lighting tests and trials. Also the sizes of the three would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
You can get those items at Superior Studio Specialties. They are painted white with flat spray paint. Here are the cubes: www.superiorstudio.com/shop/special-events-en/special-events-close-out-en/fiberglass-cubes-3/ The Ball is a big ornament: www.superiorstudio.com/shop/table-of-contents-en/table-of-contents-christmas-en/table-of-contents-christmas-ornaments-en/table-of-contents-christmas-ornaments-classic-colors-en/table-of-contents-christmas-ornaments-classic-colors-page004-en/classic-ornament-shiny-matte-or-mica-finish-white/ I am not finding the cylinder. I think we bought in in their display category but I don’t see it. You could make one out of abs or pvc plumbing pipe.
Excellent video...well done and informative...I have an observation that I would like to get your take on if you don't mind.You said the sun is an example of a strong directional, pinpoint, hard light...This explains the illumination of the moon in phases (drastic harder core, quickly dropping from highlight into shadow)...But on the earth; the sunrise/set is very gradual; as if lit by soft light (soft core gradually fading into shadow)"Cosmically speaking", the earth and moon are very close to one another (240,000 miles apart); but 93 million miles from the sun...how can the moon appear lit by hard light and the earth appear to be lit by soft light when they are "cosmically speaking"; the same distance from the sun?
Will this series better help me understand light placement and its effects? It's probably a rudimentary question but I'm trying to better understand the basics...... Thanks.
Maybe you won't respond because the video is old but I wanted to know if you have a set of reference photos of different light scenarios of the cube, the sphere, the cylinder.. it would be extremely helpful for drawing. Photography and illustrating go hand in hand. 😉
I like how you set this up. However, your explanation is incorrect. The lightest part on the sphere is called the specular highlight, what you see there is the light source being reflected(imagine the ball being a mirror, speculum, you would see the light reflected, right where you see that specular highlight on the more matte sphere) The second lightest area at the top left of the sphere is most directly facing the light source, if we imagine little square planes all over the sphere like a wire mesh, the light most facing plane would be that square catching the most light particles because it’s exposing more surface to the light source. The lightness gradually decreases as the little planes move away from the light because fewer light particles hit them. We call all these planes halftones. Once we almost reach the terminator(the place where the direct light terminates and no longer hits the sphere) the halftones darken more quickly, following lambert’s law in a cosine manner. Then reaching the terminator(astronomical term), the light particles no longer hit the planes on the sphere directly and the light thus terminates. Everything after that is in shadow, including what you call the core which you incorrectly say is a transitional area between light and shadow, it’s actually called the “core shadow) this is an area of the form shadow(all the shadow on this sphere is called form shadow, the negative projection on the table is called the cast shadow, which is generally quite a bit darker than the shadow on the form, like in this example. The light hitting the table loses a lot of energy but bounces back, also into the shadow area of the sphere, this light is called “reflected light”. The area next to the terminator on the top right is what we call the core shadow, because it catches a significantly smaller amount of reflected light. At the very bottom area of the sphere no ambient light hits the sphere anymore, we call this area the occlusion shadow or ambient occlusion shadow. Also the table directly underneath this is in ambient occlusion. Finally we reach the rest of the cast shadow, which like I said is a negative projection of the sphere. It’s edge is harder on the left where the space between the terminator and the table is smaller and the edge on the right is softer, because there is more space between the terminator and the table, this is because the light source here is not a single small point, but rather a large lamp, parts of which do and parts of which do not light the table around the cast shadow. I hope this clears up some things.
There is shade on the moon. That is why you see the moon with different shapes from crescent to full. If you look closely it is simply shade on the moon. It has a shadow side and a hight light side. The whole moon is there.
a school blackboard with different colored chalk? how do you videograph it so the colos stay distinkt, black board stays black and no incident highlight so everything is readable? I need the colors red, yellow, green blue and white pop out and be distinkt while they are used on the board. enough contrast to the black board ... how do you light it best and choose the seetings so there is not too much so the black board looks black and not too litle so the colors stay distinkt and easy to read. think also about the little dust that is on the black board each time you clean the board.
If you ever see my comment, can you please tell me how much light will illuminate a sphere with one direct light source? In other words what is the percentage of light and shadow on sphere. Is it 50/50? I know the closer the light source to the sphere less light around obviously but a single light source further away would it always be the same amount of light and shadow on a sphere?
There are two concepts at play. One is intensity of the light or how much light there is. And the other is how much does the light wrap, or how soft it is. A light further away from the sphere is not going to wrap as much and will be harder and more directional. It doesn't matter the intensity or how bright it is as long as your exposure is correct. If the light is f/11 or f/2.8 it will wrap the same from the same distance.
"The camera is not your tool" I have been shoot for 10+ years and honestly I never thought about it that way. Good videos, thanks.
Thanks Richard!
love where this series is going! can't wait till we start adding these shapes together!
Thanks for watching, Christopher!
I don't do photography but this video has really help me understand light. I'll try and use this in my drawing! Thanks!
It's my college lighting 101 class condensed into 12 mins!! Awesome, can't wait for the next one.
Thanks Zendail
Seams that you never get tired of making the best videos on photography around....
Thank you very very much sir!
Thanks so much, that's kind of you.
We were fortunate to have had Charlie Potts as an instructor. Yes, it still relevant and as he would have said "the law of light is eternal." Good information. Lynne McCready, Art Center Photo class of 1985.
One of the best videos about the characteristics of light. Thank you.
Thanks Muhammad.
You have really opened my eyes. thanks. Can't wait to learn more.
The BBC did a great series explaining how painters and photographers use Chiaroscuro to make the available light on a mediums surface appear to have more contrast than technically available. This mimics what the eye does as it interprets tone. (Many optical allusions use this to good effect)
You alluded to this in the video without actually explaining the affect. So I thought you may want to check it out.
Sorry, I forget the name of the series. But it's the best thing I have ever watched on this subject. It was made about 2 years ago and should be available on iplayer still.
Thanks! I'll try and find it.
biscuitsalive It was called 'Light Fantastic' aired on BBC4 in 2010. I concur, it was fascinating.
Jaybee nice! I always remember the content. But not the title. Very frustrating. :)
Cool, thanks!
I think the pithiest most informative talk I've seen. I've read and studied a lot but don't remember "incident highlight" which makes perfect sense. Now part of my nomenclature! This is wonderful. Thanks so much for putting this out there.
I am very excited for this series! With just this first video, I learned what I was doing wrong with adding a second light to fill.
Great to hear, thanks Maria.
one of the best video on light i've seen
So glad you found it helpful!
Very beautifully explained. Thank you Sir.
So glad you found it helpful. Good luck with your shoots!
You're great. As simplified and eloquent as can be.
Thank you so much for taking the time to make these great videos !!
Thanks for watching, Walt!
Wunderbar . . . I saw the Fstoppers article about this video and popped right over here. Excellent Channel !!
Thanks Cappy! We love FStoppers!
Great video! Already waiting for the next one.
I already knew how to make it, but no one ever explained me why to make it.
Thanks for solving this out.
Thank you, Jefferson. Glad it was helpful.
Excelente tutorial!!! Voy a ver todos tus videos. Hoy descubrí tu canal. Soy fotógrafo y quiero aprender más! Gracias!!! Saludos desde Argentina
Thanks for subscribing. I hope you continue to learn a lot!
I came here to see a spherical diffuser but I’m actually glad I stayed after I saw it wasn’t what I thought I was looking for. This video turned out to be a nice surprise. You have a great teaching style I subscribed
Beautifully explained nice tutorial... although I already studied this back in my times, it was nice to watch and just refresh the concept of light.
Thank you, Remo.
Such a beautiful lesson of light! 👏👏👏
Really enjoyed this. Looking forward to the next one>
Thanks Marshall!
Learned quite a bit today about my approach with natural light which cannot be moved (though the camera can be re-positioned). Thank you for the instructional.
Awesome! Glad you were able to see how it applies to natural light as well.
Bravo and Thanks for sharing the building blocks of photography. Learning and applying knowledge of this nature can define the difference between taking a photograph or making art.
by far best explanation of lighting. I have watched easily 10 hours of tutorials on this... this is by FAR the best. Thanks!
Thanks so much, Matthew.
Thank you. Explained very nicely
Great to hear. Those lighting basics give you a good foundation.
Great video, Jay. Thanks.
Very clear and concise. Well done as usual. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
The scope of the videos on this channel is pretty cool; from a massive shoot with road closures and multiple cameras, to a white ball and a couple of lights. Neat!
Thanks Robin, we have a lot of fun.
pure gold!! Thank you very much
You are welcome. Glad you found it worthwhile!
Excellent video, with the super simple subject of the sphere, the idea of doing a cube and a cilinder is great. I wish my teachers had done something like this when I studied Photo....
Thank you, Camilo
Amazing it is. I really learn much today. Thank you J.P. Morgan
Thanks for watching, Vatsal.
Really cool . Light bulb went off. Looking forward to the next one.
Thanks so much, Vincent.
This is a fantastic synthesis. Thank you.
Thank you for watching!
We'll be publishing a new installment on Thursday, so come check it out!
Absolutely brilliant
Thanks Moshe.
Great video, JP, looking forward to the next in this series.
Thanks Jenny!
This was extremely helpful! Thank you! You are awesome! I'm looking forward to the videos on cube and cylinder. 🤗🤗🤗
thanks for the video and demonstration
about 200 pages in 12 minutes :D
- Great job.
awesome series! Couple weeks ago I had a shoot where I could only use some floodlights and I had no clue how to use them, so I'm very excited about this!
Thanks Aike! Glad it was helpful.
Very useful and helpful, Thank you very much!!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
Very, very good video. Thank you!
thanks for checking it out. hope you learned something!
Spherically speaking, it should be call "Moon lighting" Great video. Thank you@The Slanted lens.
Subscribed! Instant fan. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much!
This is such a great video. Thanks a lot.
You are welcome. Thanks for watching!
Nice video, great way of explaining light. 👍🏻
Thanks Darren. Appreciate you watching.
Good stuff Jay P
Thank you!
Charles Potts was a great man!
He really was!
I love the class!!❤
Glad to hear it. Thanks for watching!
Well done video. Thanks!
I'd like to see an explanation about the difference between diffused and specular light. If you can fit that in I'd appreciate it a lot. Thanks again!
As always.. master of photogaraphy.. Thank you..
Thanks so much.
We started with eggs. Good to see some actual photography fundamentals on TH-cam anymore. Thanks JP
Thanks!
Absolutely amazing tutorial, thank you very much for going into such detail!
Thank you for watching!
Thank you for this amazing resource... even non beginners need to refresh this :-)
Thanks Frank.
Great video!
Outstanding video.
Thank you, Ray!
Awesome explanation! Thank you
Your welcome, Conon! Thanks for checking us out!
ITS REALLY VERY VERY USEFULL LESSON SIR.. THANK YOU..!
You are most welcome. Thanks for your comment!
very well explained! thanks a lot for this! cheers!
A really good video! Well explained!
Great instructional Jay! I felt like I was getting some much needed 101 with this video, can't wait to watch the other ones. I did a modeling gig with a national brand once, and the shoot area was found by using a location scout - maybe a great video idea would be to talk about how to be a location scout (getting into the biz), and using location scouts i.e. costs etc.
Keep on Taping!
Great idea. Thanks Justin.
Great video, really well explained.
Thank you
Thank you. It was wonderful.
Waiting for the next class.
Demorei pra achar um conteúdo de qualidade quanto a esse. Muito obrigado por dividir seu conhecimento.
You are very welcome! De nada!
Great stuff, very very helpfull, many thanks!
Thanks for watching Thomas.
Brilliant
Thank you and thanks for watching!
I see a sixth thing also which is the reflected light from the table up onto the lower part of the sphere.
Yes, the surface does make a difference!
thank you soooooo muchhhhhh
You are very welcome! You might like the rest of our Laws of Light series:
th-cam.com/users/TheSlantedLenssearch?view_as=subscriber&query=laws+of+light
excellent work thanks for sharing!
Thanks Sammy.
Thank you sir this is helped me a lot!, waiting for other shapes tutorials.
Your videos is amazig!!!
great video! Thanks
very nice video congrats!!
Thanks Petros.
Just a quick question, maybe I missed it in the video, what is the difference between Highlight and Incident Highlight? Is the incident highlight the brightest part of the highlight, indicative of the light source INSIDE the modifier? Thanks in advance.
This might sound wild, can you do a video on all of the basic functions of a modern camera and show how to use those features and their purpose?
I have added that to our list. You might want to check out our camera basics series: th-cam.com/users/TheSlantedLenssearch?view_as=subscriber&query=camera+basics
Dean Collins says much the same using different terms. In this area it is difficult to say anything new, it just how you say it. And I love JP's tutorials.
I disagree where he seems to concentrate on studio lighting. This is why most who do not do studio tend to ignore this stuff. These fundamentals are crucial to landscape and nature photographers. You may not be able to change where the source of light comes from, but you can certainly change your point of view, or the timing.
The best nature photographers were very aware of all this. The rest are hack snap-shooters taking whatever happens to present itself when they are standing wherever.
The 49th million boring animal/landscape image suddenly becomes amazing when you take the time to work the light. Change your position, or wait till the light changes.
Every genre of photographer needs to understand this. Problem is it takes effort.
Thanks, Herman. A natural light photographer commented that he had been able to use this to his advantage. I think it's great when photogs take solid knowledge and use it in the way that best benefits them. Light is light, no matter where it comes from. Thanks for watching.
I posted my comment with a link to you, on my FB Photography page. We'll see....
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been looking for something like this for about a year. I just kept hearing on the internet you need to learn to see light. You need to learn to see light. I was a bit puzzled. I see light all the time. How do you learn to "see" light. I just had my first lesson. Thanks again!
Awesome. Stay tuned for the others, Robert. Thanks for watching.
Hi J.P. Morgan! Fantastic video instruction! Would you please be so kind as to provide us a link as to where you obtained: 1) Sphere 2)Cube and 3) Cylinder for the Laws of Light Series? Would be great for those of us who would like to practice & see for ourselves by our own lighting tests and trials. Also the sizes of the three would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
You can get those items at Superior Studio Specialties. They are painted white with flat spray paint.
Here are the cubes:
www.superiorstudio.com/shop/special-events-en/special-events-close-out-en/fiberglass-cubes-3/
The Ball is a big ornament:
www.superiorstudio.com/shop/table-of-contents-en/table-of-contents-christmas-en/table-of-contents-christmas-ornaments-en/table-of-contents-christmas-ornaments-classic-colors-en/table-of-contents-christmas-ornaments-classic-colors-page004-en/classic-ornament-shiny-matte-or-mica-finish-white/
I am not finding the cylinder. I think we bought in in their display category but I don’t see it.
You could make one out of abs or pvc plumbing pipe.
would love to see a list of equipment used in the descriptions of the videos. :)
Diffuse Shader Sphere + GI + High Specular roughness
Excellent video...well done and informative...I have an observation that I would like to get your take on if you don't mind.You said the sun is an example of a strong directional, pinpoint, hard light...This explains the illumination of the moon in phases (drastic harder core, quickly dropping from highlight into shadow)...But on the earth; the sunrise/set is very gradual; as if lit by soft light (soft core gradually fading into shadow)"Cosmically speaking", the earth and moon are very close to one another (240,000 miles apart); but 93 million miles from the sun...how can the moon appear lit by hard light and the earth appear to be lit by soft light when they are "cosmically speaking"; the same distance from the sun?
Nice video.
Thanks for watching! Check out our full laws of light series: th-cam.com/video/D_O6pbT7Ovw/w-d-xo.html
Will this series better help me understand light placement and its effects? It's probably a rudimentary question but I'm trying to better understand the basics...... Thanks.
Yes it will! Check out the whole playlist to get a better understanding of different lighting situations.
Jay, I humbly suggest you could dramatically improve your lessons by using set.a.light 3D Studio to present. Check it out.
before adding the second light how did he create separation?
Maybe you won't respond because the video is old but I wanted to know if you have a set of reference photos of different light scenarios of the cube, the sphere, the cylinder.. it would be extremely helpful for drawing. Photography and illustrating go hand in hand. 😉
Sorry, we don't have reference photos of the ball, cube and cylinder. Good luck with your art!
I like how you set this up. However, your explanation is incorrect. The lightest part on the sphere is called the specular highlight, what you see there is the light source being reflected(imagine the ball being a mirror, speculum, you would see the light reflected, right where you see that specular highlight on the more matte sphere)
The second lightest area at the top left of the sphere is most directly facing the light source, if we imagine little square planes all over the sphere like a wire mesh, the light most facing plane would be that square catching the most light particles because it’s exposing more surface to the light source.
The lightness gradually decreases as the little planes move away from the light because fewer light particles hit them. We call all these planes halftones. Once we almost reach the terminator(the place where the direct light terminates and no longer hits the sphere) the halftones darken more quickly, following lambert’s law in a cosine manner.
Then reaching the terminator(astronomical term), the light particles no longer hit the planes on the sphere directly and the light thus terminates. Everything after that is in shadow, including what you call the core which you incorrectly say is a transitional area between light and shadow, it’s actually called the “core shadow) this is an area of the form shadow(all the shadow on this sphere is called form shadow, the negative projection on the table is called the cast shadow, which is generally quite a bit darker than the shadow on the form, like in this example.
The light hitting the table loses a lot of energy but bounces back, also into the shadow area of the sphere, this light is called “reflected light”. The area next to the terminator on the top right is what we call the core shadow, because it catches a significantly smaller amount of reflected light.
At the very bottom area of the sphere no ambient light hits the sphere anymore, we call this area the occlusion shadow or ambient occlusion shadow. Also the table directly underneath this is in ambient occlusion.
Finally we reach the rest of the cast shadow, which like I said is a negative projection of the sphere. It’s edge is harder on the left where the space between the terminator and the table is smaller and the edge on the right is softer, because there is more space between the terminator and the table, this is because the light source here is not a single small point, but rather a large lamp, parts of which do and parts of which do not light the table around the cast shadow.
I hope this clears up some things.
Wow, you wrote a book. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
So why isn't there no shade on either side of the moon when it is full? A flat disc is the only reason I can think.
There is shade on the moon. That is why you see the moon with different shapes from crescent to full. If you look closely it is simply shade on the moon. It has a shadow side and a hight light side. The whole moon is there.
I still don't fully understand incident highlight. Does someone mind explaining to me?
a school blackboard with different colored chalk? how do you videograph it so the colos stay distinkt, black board stays black and no incident highlight so everything is readable?
I need the colors red, yellow, green blue and white pop out and be distinkt while they are used on the board. enough contrast to the black board ... how do you light it best and choose the seetings so there is not too much so the black board looks black and not too litle so the colors stay distinkt and easy to read. think also about the little dust that is on the black board each time you clean the board.
Sounds like you should tackle that in post.
@@TheSlantedLens i'm so excited you answered. And now at least I know I don't need to look further to try it while strraming
If you ever see my comment, can you please tell me how much light will illuminate a sphere with one direct light source? In other words what is the percentage of light and shadow on sphere. Is it 50/50? I know the closer the light source to the sphere less light around obviously but a single light source further away would it always be the same amount of light and shadow on a sphere?
There are two concepts at play. One is intensity of the light or how much light there is. And the other is how much does the light wrap, or how soft it is. A light further away from the sphere is not going to wrap as much and will be harder and more directional. It doesn't matter the intensity or how bright it is as long as your exposure is correct. If the light is f/11 or f/2.8 it will wrap the same from the same distance.
@@TheSlantedLens thank you for your help.
how are you a photographer and didnt mention bounce light ? the example you used had alot of it too .
Every time I referenced fill light it was referring to bounced light.
I thought you made a very similar video about this but with an egg. (Remember the egg) I used it in my photography class. But can't find it anymore.
We don't recall using an egg in our Laws of Light videos.
Love your explanations! And all the videos! Hugs from russia ❤️
Thanks!
Forgot reflective light....from the ground plane
Has nobody noticed that a 1:3 ratio is not 3 stops? 1:2 is a stop, 1:4 is 2 stops, 1:8 is 3 stops...
I was thinking the same.
Nearly lost me at Vide"O"ographer
Glad I stuck around.
Potato, potahto? Thanks for sticking around!
What is the first light you used?
And the other ones :p
OMG Sounds so complicated
Once you try the lighting it will become easy.
J.P. Morgan... sounds familiar...
I'm famous so...
So if you backlight your subject, all five things happen directly in front of and toward the camera… 🤔
Not back light, but lighting toward the back. Straight back light will put a rim around the subject matter.