ACS - 2nd Advance Manual Project #2: The Color of Light

Advance Manual : 226-B  Speaking to Inform
Project # 2    : Resources of Information
Title          : The Color of Light
Delivered at   : PICPA Riyadh Toastmasters Club
Evaluated by   : ACB/CL Roi Ontiveros
Target Norm    : Advance Communicator Silver

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Note:  

*  The speaker is a professional photographer and currently teaching photography classes

*  Actual speech delivered may significantly from the prepared speeches.  

* Use the slides below to follow the context of the presentation.

<<Slide 1>>

Good evening fellow toastmasters!

Of all the technical innovations in the 21^st century, would you agree with me that the digital camera is one of the most excited inventions?   Technology made it possible for almost everyone to have access to camera:  be it cell phone cam, web cam, up to the professional DSLRs. 

And for a professional photographer like me, I often encounter questions such as:

·         What is the best brand of camera in the market

·         What model of camera should I buy

·         What accessories do I need to make me a better photographer.

I usually don’t answer the question.  Instead I give them a wicked smile and wink.  But there are those who are persistent who would start talking about ISO, Aperture, Shutter and all the techie stuff.  I politely shut them by asking “Do you know the color of Light?”

Baffled, they would reply back “Why? What’s the relation?”

Fellow Toastmasters, the reason why I am a good photographer is because I understand the very basic foundation of Photography and Printing.  And one of these basics is understanding the Color of Light.

<<Slide 2>>

If you remember in your high school physics, assuming you were not sleeping that time, if you put an object in point A, and put a lens in point B, a reflection of the object will be formed in point C.  

 Example you have man in point A, an inverted reflection of the man will be seen in point C.

 

<<Slide 3>>

Apply that in photography, you can record the reflected image if you put a film or digital sensor in point C.  Basically, what we see as picture is just a reflection of the actual subject that we see.

Take note… it is just a reflected image.

<<Slide 4>>

Going back to the question what is the color of light, the answer is “White”.

White light, when beamed over a prism produces millions of colors which are the shades of Red, Green and Blue.  

<<Slide 5>>

Let take for example: we have red object.  When a white light is beamed on the red object, all the colors will be absorbed or disperse except for the color red which will be reflected towards you.  The same principle applies to rainbow, trees, and all other tangible objects.

The pinkish cheeks of TM Sheila for example is a reflection of the shade of blue & red.

 

<<Slide 6>>

What is the relationship then of light & photography?

Light, we know is a medium that reflects the pattern of color of a given subject/object.  That reflected pattern is what we “see” as color.

Photography on the other hand is defined as drawing or writing using light.

If we use our eyes to “see” the color, camera uses the film or sensor to draw/write the color.  In essence, everything that our eyes can “see” or the sensor can “record” is just a reflection of light.

You control the quality of light, you control the quality of color that is being reflected.

<<Slide 7>>

Talking about quality of light: there are dozen properties of light but we will only narrow down to three qualities that is applicable to photography.  These are Hue, Brightness and Saturation.

If you tried adjusting your monitor, you may see these and you play around with the toggle without fully understanding how it works.

Let’s take a look at the details.

<<Slide 8>>

Hue is the actual color that is reflected by an object.  In our elementary days, we were thought of the seven basic colors of the rainbow – ROYGBIV.  

In reality, there are millions of colors in the visible spectrum.  Our eyes can only see approximately 1.6 million, however the sensor of your camera can detect up to 26 million colors. 

Hue therefore is color of the object.

<<Slide 9>>

Let take a sample.  You went outside see a beautiful mango fruit. You take a picture of it, and display of the picture in your screen.  The hue was perfect: yellow-orange.

When you tried printing it in large format, you notice a difference of the printed picture compared to the displayed picture.  Did you experience this TM Reina and TM James?

The explanation is because your monitor display hue in its additive properties also known as RGB, while your printer “draw” the picture using the subtractive property also known as CMY.

The next time you print a photo, try converting it first to CMY to have an idea what the picture would like in paper.

<<Slide 10>>

Another quality of light is known as Brightness.  This quality is directly related to the amount of darkness or black on a particular object.

We describe a shirt as blue, dark blue, light blue but all these color as still blue except the degree shade differs.   A red object under the sunlight will appear light red but under a shade, it will appear darker.  Your camera will also see the same.  

To control that quality of light, you adjust the brightness of your camera.  Under the sun, you reduce brightness and under the shade, you increase the brightness.  That way, the red object will consistently appear red.

<<Slide 11>>

Saturation is another quality of light that is the amount of hue at the same brightness.   Imagine it as house paint:  You have a red paint.  You mix it with white paint to decrease the intensity of red.  Conversely you add more red paint to increase the intensity of red – which explains why painter would double paint a wall to give more intensity or saturation of a color.

How is this applicable to photography?

Example you are taking a picture of an African, you would like to reduce the saturation in your camera to make him/her appear “grayish” rather than black.  If you are taking a picture of a Caucasian, you would want to increase the saturation to add more skin tone and make your subject more “brownish” rather than pale.

For us Filipinos, we don’t have problem with saturation.  Our skin tone is just perfect!

<<Slide 12>>

Understanding the color of light and its qualities will already make a huge difference to your pictures.  Hue is the actual color, brightness to control the amount of darkness – imaging shading, and saturation as the intensity of color.

How about shutter, aperture and ISO?   My answer, set it to Automatic, let the camera worry the settings for you.