Wikipedia on photography reports, “The word “photography” was created from the Greek roots φωτός (phōtos), genitive of φῶς (phōs), “light” and γραφή (graphé) “representation by means of lines” or “drawing”,together meaning “drawing with light”
Many of us have heard the term stretched a little bit more as ‘Painting with Light’. Whichever definition you use LIGHT IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT… And today’s Photo/Art Quote comes from someone who knew quite a bit about light.
“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” – George Eastman
I think we become more aware and stronger as photographers when we give a language to light. Check out the portrait of Eastman from the Wikipedia web site. Can you talk about the quality of the light? Can you give a ratio to the light? Describe the lighting pattern on his face? How large is your lighting vocabulary? Why is it good? Or Not?
Photographic portrait of George Eastman from Wikipedia web site.
Once the brain learns more words for lighting it can offer more thoughts and combinations, mixing ideas and allowing you to see light in a new light if you’ll pardon the expression. I will be having more blog posts about the ‘Language of Light’ here on Successful-Photographer and I hope you’ll join in. In the meantime study the photograph of George and see what you photography vocabulary is like. Drop your thoughts in the comments here to get the dialog started. I’ll revisit this in a couple days with my thoughts in another post.
Yours in Photography, Bob
