[MUSIC] Welcome back. We're going to talk about light, controlled light, some basic principles that apply to light in general, and specifically to controlled light, so let's get going. Well, before we proceed to examples of situations involving controlled lighting in relation to places, things, and people, we're going to review some principles that will give you a solid foundation of knowledge to apply in all cases. In this lesson and the next, we'll shed some light, and pun is intended, on the following normal light versus abnormal light, hard and direct light versus soft and diffused light, and the inverse square law. That may sound like a lot to cover, but you're going to discover that you already know about all of those things just from your day to day living experience. I'm going to use illustrations for most of these concepts that are actually made under sunlight rather than controlled light, because it's something that we are all familiar with. So let's get going. First, lets talk about direction of light and what makes a scene look normally or abnormally lit. Everybody on planet Earth, including the Cat in The Hat, is accustomed to one light source, that we all have in common, and that is the sun. You instantly understand the context of this joyful meeting between two old friends, in this picture, in part because the lighting provided by the sun looks normal. You probably did not think about the light at all. You may be saying to yourself, okay professor, now please tell me something I don't already know. Well, what I want you to do in regard to this point. And all the rest is to realize how important it is to first recognize what you already know. And then recognize what you do not often think about, and that's what you already know. And in photography, if you don't think about these things, that could really limit you. When was the last time you just paused for a moment, looked around the world, smiled like Josie the puppy is here, and said to yourself, self look at how natural and normal everything seems in this wonderful world because it is all lit by the sun in the sky above. Perhaps you said such a thing to yourself when you were a child, becoming fascinated with the world you were discovering in your childhood innocence, or your puppy innocence. If you’re lucky and perhaps very much a creative person having an innocent fascination with the world around you. You might have said that same thing to yourself today. We have all become so accustomed to that normal sunlight illuminating our world. And it's persons, places, and things from up above that we often do not really notice light at all until it's creating something unusual, even spectacular. Such as this magnificent array of colors in the sky over a small lake here in mid Michigan. No Photoshop here, I promise. This is straight from my iPhone. Or until it's creating something unusually spooky, such as this when it comes from directly below as you may see in a cliche scene in almost every horror film. Well as photographers, we are writing with light. So, it's important for us to notice light, even when it is what we call normal. The first principle I'd like to share, is simply that the more normal the light appears, The less your viewer will notice it. And determining what that elusive word, normal, means in any given situation is a key. If you want the viewer to pay attention to the light, it needs to make its presence felt, and often in an unusual or, quote, abnormal way. How do you know what's normal light for any given subject? Well, that's simple. Just look. You already have enough experience with so many types of things and light situations. This knowledge is part of your DNA. In this example, the scene appears very much like it did, to my eyes, as I looked out my kitchen window to see the early blue-cast of dawn, and the red cardinal bird at the feeder on another snowy day in Michigan. If I had not adopted the attitude long ago, that I should always pay attention to the light, I might have been surprised to see the blue cast of color that washes over the scene in the photograph itself. The reason I was not surprised, and the reason I was happy with the picture, was because a scene that someone else might have seen as being normally lit, it's actually one full of a blue color cast. That blue color cast is content. So my point to you as I've said is just simply look. A scene infused with normal light is one in which that light would call the least amount of attention to itself. It's light that generally should come from a normal angle for any given subject. In the case of a group of persons, we usually describe that as anything from head height to any angle higher or above. In almost all cases, either from the angle of view of the photographer, or up to about 90 degrees left or right. In this case, the sun was shining down from behind the subjects, who were participating as I was, in a Habitat for Humanity house building project in Detroit. I used a flash on my camera as the main light lightning the shadows. If I had not added that extra flashlight changing the result from which just the natural light would've made, the figures would've looked silhouetted. And the lighting would've been very noticeable and a very negative factor. By muting the effects of sunlight with the flash, making the natural light look less noticeable, I made the light, strangely, more normal. Here's another example. Using sunlight as our main light. The main light is the one that creates the most brilliant highlights and deepest shadows. I'm pleased to introduce you to Smokey the Bear, who protects all the forests in the United States of America. When the main light is from the same angle as the camera. In this case, the sun over my shoulder. The emphasis is on the object's shape, and its tonal values and colors. We've seen this before in regard to the design element of shape. The light is creating very few shadows. It is what we would call flat light. The closer the angle of the light to the camera vantage point, the more it simply illuminates without making a statement. That flatness of light is something we've all seen in passport photographs and also in Wanted posters with a criminal's face staring out at us too. Getting back to Smokey the Bear, when I turn the toy animal 180 degrees around, the main light, the sun, was now aimed directly at his back and at my camera. That lighting created a silhouette image of Smokey along with the lens flare caused by light bouncing around inside the lens, rather than passing directly through it. Most of us would not consider this to be normal light, but it is light that adds a particular dramatic content to the picture. Here's Smokey again. This time with a light coming from an angle almost directly above his head. An appearance that we would all probably call normal. When the light is moving at an angle directly from the left hand side, even though half of his face is hidden in shadow, the appearance of the light again is what we might all feel is in the normal range. It's when the light comes from below, even though it is direct, normal sunlight, not some special Hollywood spotlight or uneven looking flashlight. We recognize it as unsettling, not normal, even for a stuffed animal. With that information as a foundation, let's move on to other principals in the next lesson. [MUSIC]