The Mastery of Light
(Working Title)

by
J. C. Adamson

This book is intended for all visual artists who use light. I hope it will be particularly helpful for painters and photographers. I also hope it will be interesting to connoisseurs of the visual arts, and will contribute to their appreciation of art.

Probable chapters:

1. In The Beginning-Light and lighting
2. Begin at the Source-The nature of light sources.
3. The Light Sources That Shape a Subject
4. Shaping the Human Face-the ideal way to study key lighting
5. The Rest of the Lighting Set-Application of the other light functions
6. Light Sources and Their Mechanics
7. Beyond the Basics
8. Lighting Equipment for Photography
9. Lighting for the Camera
10. Lighting for Non-Graphic Applications-The stage, architecture, the home
11. Using Natural Light Sources, Indoors and Outdoors
12. Rembrandt, The First Master of Light
13. It Doesn't Matter if It Doesn't Sell
14. Learn Lighting Every Day, By Seeing Light.

Chapter 1

In The Beginning

Think what a baby encounters at the moment of birth.

The senses explode. All is new. Until this instant, touch and sight and sound had been muffled and constrained. Now stimuli bombard the infant. Everything-from everywhere. All is novel. Nothing is familiar. No wonder she cries.

Light must be the most dramatic stimulus of all-like waking from a slumber, afloat in the night sky on the Fourth of July, right where the firebursts explode. Like looking into an inferno. First there is only a bright whiteness, then shape and form to the light. For one child, the world has begun, and that world will likely reveal itself primarily through light.

This is where we begin our journey. We'll ride on a light beam, as Einstein envisioned. We'll discover how we discover. This is vision. This is photography, and art. This is light.

Of the five human senses, sight offers us the most information about the world. To give us vision, the eye and mind may process more than fifty billion bits of data per second. The mechanics of that process are still only barely understood, despite the explosion of knowledge we've experienced in recent years. But, though the physiology of vision is still being discovered, it's obvious that a tremendous amount of human knowledge is obtained through its powers.

And vision is the fruit of light. For people blessed with the miracle of sight, light is how they perceive their world. Light imparts knowledge. It triggers emotion. It warns and warms. It energizes. It fosters growth and change. It awakens and arouses.

Small wonder that photography is such a powerful medium of communication. It literally writes with light. It mimics our vision. It freezes a moment of time and light for our later retrieval. While it is not the same as temporal vision, it can still relate much of what direct vision can tell. It can impart information, emotion, energy, arousal, and more.

Like vision, photography is a product of light. Light is its source and its great tool. Light is its essence. The vital significance of light in photography is clear. Its importance to the other visual arts though, is just as profound.

Light is one of the most elemental of all things. It is basic to everything we know and are. The ancients knew the importance and power of light. The Old Testament book of Genesis was first written nearly 3,000 years ago, derived from a much older oral tradition.

• "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Genesis 1:2, King James Version

The image in this passage will be our thesis-our premise. Without light, we can't perceive form.

Perhaps you're a photographer, a cinematographer, or a painter. Maybe you create visual effects on stage. You are certainly a human being, constantly perceiving your world. Light is a tool for you. It may be your most important tool. In the visual arts, no element reveals more than light. No element contributes as much depth and brilliance to an image. Light reveals all; nothing is shown without it.

This book is as much about light as about lighting. The subject of lighting deals with how we apply light to our art. We'll certainly talk about lighting. We'll discuss what kind of lights to use, and where to put them, and what effects to seek with them. That's lighting.

But we'll talk as well about light. We'll study its nature and its behavior. We'll try to immerse ourselves in light until we understand it. We'll come to feel light. We'll grasp the truth of light's impact on our vision. When the understanding of light approaches mastery, the mechanics of lighting become instinctive.

Learn light, and you'll know lighting. Try to learn lighting without mastering light, and you'll struggle. To master light-to control it, contain it, shape it-to use light, is to take charge of visual art and science. If the art is photography, then to unlock the mystery of light is to reveal the secrets of the art. In all other visual arts, light is just as essential. We shall study light.

© J. C. Adamson, 1997