It is all about Light

[johnastovall]

"The moment you take the leap of understanding to realize you are not photographing a subject but are photographing light is when you have control over the medium." - Daryl Benson

[tukaniray]

I like that statement. Nice.

-Ray-

[jeffkohn]

I disagree. Light is important, but it is not all about light. Subject matters. I don't see how anybody who is a fan of documentary work in particular could agree with that statement.

IMHO "it's all about writing with light" is just as much a trite cliche as "the camera doesn't matter, only the photographer". In both cases there is a grain of truth that has been over-simplified to the point of falsehood and then turned into a mantra that gets repeated ad-nauseam.

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

I disagree. Light is important, but it is not all about light. Subject matters. I don't see how anybody who is a fan of documentary work in particular could agree with that statement.

IMHO "it's all about writing with light" is just as much a trite cliche as "the camera doesn't matter, only the photographer". In both cases there is a grain of truth that has been over-simplified to the point of falsehood and then turned into a mantra that gets repeated ad-nauseam.

Would you not agree that you could take just about any subject and make it interesting depending on how you light it? Take a toothpick for example. Shoot it with flat lighting, and it's as boring as watching paint dry. However, light it with "creative" lighting, and you can make that same toothpick look very interesting in a few different ways.

[jeffkohn]

Originally Posted by JohnT

Would you not agree that you could take just about any subject and make it interesting depending on how you light it? Take a toothpick for example. Shoot it with flat lighting, and it's as boring as watching paint dry. However, light it with "creative" lighting, and you can make that same toothpick look very interesting in a few different ways.

I don't know about any subject, but even so you still need to have a subject for the light to fall on. I'm not disagreeing that some photographs are primarily about light, that's the grain of truth I was talking about. But you can't generalize that to apply to all or even most photographs. Some images are about light, some are about color, some are about line, shape, or pattern, and some are about subject. Many photographs rely on a combination of several of these elements.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by jeffkohn

I don't know about any subject, but even so you still need to have a subject for the light to fall on. I'm not disagreeing that some photographs are primarily about light, that's the grain of truth I was talking about. But you can't generalize that to apply to all or even most photographs. Some images are about light, some are about color, some are about line, shape, or pattern, and some are about subject. Many photographs rely on a combination of several of these elements.

But try to photograph any of those things without any light! Yeah, see, see....gotcha there!
OK, I'm just reaching with that one.....

[johnastovall]

Rayographs anyone?

[zero6249]

if don't have the light you will not do everythings

[tukaniray]

Well ... it won't create certain results .... everytime ... especially in low light situations.

But there are always ways around things. Having the light definitely helps.

Or you can stay as a daytime outside photographer ... all the time. With a reflector and call it a day.

-Ray-

[johnastovall]

f/0.95 and ISO 25600 can deal with most things...

[pixmaniak]

Like said above, light is very important, but its just one part of good photography.. subject, moment, atmosphere, all these matter..

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by pixmaniak

Like said above, light is very important, but its just one part of good photography.. subject, moment, atmosphere, all these matter..

Why must a photograph have a subject? An abstract photograph no more needs a subject than an abstract painting.

State Vector Collapsing or the Death of Schrodinger's Cat Observed

[ChristopherCoy]

Thats pretty awesome Stovall...

I think that light is the basis of any art, because without light, you have no subject... only darkness. Take a picture in a room without a single light source, and what do you have? A black square.

However, I will say that depending on which side of your brain you are accustomed to using, depends on how you 'see' light. Lighting seems to be a very 'techie' thing. People who are very left brained and enjoy the numbers, and mathematics of light (i.e. stops, watts, etc...) tend to 'see' light better and a lot easier than those of us who are very right brained. Those of us who are right brained, and very creative, tend to see everything as a whole - the subject, background, pose, and environment, and sometimes dont 'get' lighting as easily as the techie people.

I think of myself as very right brained, and I struggled with 'left brained' lighting until Kevin Jordan explained it to me in a right brained manner. He said that when we are lighting a subject we want to make it look "3 deminsional on a 2 demensional surface." We want to "shade the subject from one direction to the other" - and all those art classes and hours spent shading cones, spheres, and cubes with a charcoal pencil came flooding back in, and I could hear my art teacher yelling in my ear "That sphere doesn't look round to me...."

Today I am familiar with them and still trying to learn everything I can, but I try not to get too heavily involved in stops, watts, and all the equations that comes along with lighting, otherwise I get confused and frustrated. I do however try to pay attention to things like shadows, catch lights, highlights etc. If thats the same thing that 'techies' do, then I guess its just a different way of looking at it, or figuring it out.

All of the above is simply my opinion.....please dont flame.

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by ChristopherCoy

Thats pretty awesome Stovall...

I think that light is the basis of any art, because without light, you have no subject... only darkness. Take a picture in a room without a single light source, and what do you have? A black square.

<snipped>

.

'Light is the basis of any art' is a patently false statement. Sculpture does not require light as it is based on mass, volume and form. One can create and appreciate a sculpture without light. Music doesn't require light nor does oral narrative.

As for your photograph of a room with out a light source, it is not a "black square." It is photograph of a room with out light - it is conceptual art.

Art is more than something to hang on a wall.

[ChristopherCoy]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

'Light is the basis of any art' is a patently false statement. Sculpture does not require light as it is based on mass, volume and form. One can create and appreciate a sculpture without light. Music doesn't require light nor does oral narrative.

As for your photograph of a room with out a light source, it is not a "black square." It is photograph of a room with out light - it is conceptual art.

Art is more than something to hang on a wall.

Gees... does EVERYONE have a stick in their ass today? I said it was my opinion, and we aren't talking about music or sculpture John.