Part 1: Understanding Lighting Brightness
Understanding lighting color is realizing the fundamental difference between the way the human eye and the camera perceives color. The eye can detect a very slight change in the color mixture, but the brain adjusts for this difference and makes us believe the color is white. Whether it is film or digital sensor, this minor change can impact the final picture. For example, there is a shift in color of light at the same time of the day if there a cloud blocks the sun. Typically we will think nothing about it, but in photography it means the color has become cooler.
In today’s digital age, we have cameras with auto white balance and highly capable image editing software to compensate for any color shift. Speaking of color, photographers borrow a scale that physicists use – that is called color temperature or Kelvin(K) scale. Daylight is 5100K. However what is interesting to note that photographers say that light with higher color temperature is cooler and light with lower color temperate is warmer. Thus tungsten light which is at 3200K is warmer than daylight.
Lighting color impacts the mood of an image. The light is so warm during the golden hours of the day – at dawn or dusk. This warmer light creates a warmer cast in the image that is good for creating a warmer i.e. a happier mood. It is pretty common to see the use of lighting color in stage lighting. A happy scene will be shown in warmer light and a sad scene will be shown in cooler light.
To conclude this chapter note that it is not always required to accurately correct white balance. Some shift is OK to preserve the natural affect of light or for creating a certain mood. The portrait at the restaurant has extreme color cast due to tungsten light, however I did not thing it was necessary to correct the skin tones to compensate for this cast since the mood of the picture fit the lighting. The same goes for the picture of the bridesmaids in late afternoon light. The picture of the mineral deposits at the Mammoth Springs at Yellowstone National Park needed to represent the terrain. There was cloud cover which cooled the light which helped to create an inhospitable mood that fits the terrain.
