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Lindsay Adler Excellently Explains The Basic Principles of Light

Chris Gampat
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08/17/2015
08/17/2015
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Last Updated on 08/17/2015 by Chris Gampat

Screenshot taken from the video
Screenshot taken from the video

Photographer Lindsay Adler recently took to creativeLive to explain some of the most basic principles of light. She covers intensity, direction and quality–which are the three biggest factors that photographers use when describing light. She covers ratios, flat lighting, directional quality, and soft vs hard light. She also explains why one is not the other.

So how do you apply this knowledge, by internalizing what she says, you can then figure out what type of look you want for a photo. To help you out even more, we’ve provided examples after the jump along with explanations and Adler’s video.

Intensity

Sufficient and bright light. When using a manual flash, your aperture controls how much of the flash output effects the scene. If we shot at a lower ISO or stopped the lens down a bit more, then this image would be much darker.
Sufficient and bright light. When using a manual flash, your aperture controls how much of the flash output effects the scene. If we shot at a lower ISO or stopped the lens down a bit more, then this image would be much darker.
Dim light
Dim light

Direction

Flat light, lower and less shadows. Model: Erica Lourde
Flat light, lower and less shadows. Main light was in front and to the side a bit but there was bounce and fill from the other side.
Model: Erica Lourde
Directional light. Notice the harder shadows
Directional light. Notice the harder shadows. To create this light, we shot with the light source camera left and a bit in front.

Quality

Hard Light, notice th deeper shadows
Hard Light, notice th deeper shadows.. Hard light comes from a light source that is generally smaller in relation to the subject
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sigma 24-35mm f2 food photos (2 of 2)ISO 10001-13 sec at f - 5.0
Soft light. Notice the shadows and how light they are. Soft light comes from a light source that is generally larger in relation to the subject.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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