Some Random Tidbits About Light

Recently I saw some posts on an online photography forum where some people were discussing lighting. In the discussion terms were being thrown around and incident and reflected light were being misused. I thought that I should clarify the definition of these terms and discuss why they are important in this latest blog update.

First of all, what is the difference between “Incident” and “Reflected” light? It’s really pretty simple. Incident light is the light that comes from the light source and strikes your subject. Reflected light is the light that bounces from your subject to your camera. Yep. It’s just that simple.

Now why is that important? Well, there are several reasons. For this posting, we’ll talk about one, relating to physics. The Law of Reflection. This law says that the angle of incidence equal the angle of reflection. Again, why is that important? When you are shooting photos of stuff that’s shiny you need to control reflections and hot spots/dark spots. By using this law you can figure out where to place white cards/flags/lights.

When you are shooting a highly reflective object, look at the the angle between the camera and the plane of the surface. Let’s say it’s 30 degrees. What ever is 30 degrees in the other direction is reflected in the object. To test this, just look in a mirror. The angle you are looking into the mirror is the same angle of the object you are looking at.

By keeping this in mind, you can photograph shiny stuff more effectively.

Once again, thanks for reading!!

-Ken