Just because lighting is a challange for you, that doesnt define what photography is.

In the latest GWC/Pro thread, to which I didn't want to contribute, that was part of Henry Tjernlund's response to a comment on light by Eric Muss-Barnes.  Instead, I thought I'd make a thread of it.  In many ways, light does define photography, technically for certain, and then also by way of personality.  Light has flavor, mood, and personality.  It even has a temperature.

Alan from Aavian Prod wrote:
As Ansel Adams said:
"Without a knowledge of light and its reaction to  the photographic process
one will never achieve the status of an Artist."

Oh crap, I better get some books on lighting and start working on it...

Brian Diaz wrote:
As my friend, Melanie, a theater/dance lighting designer, said, "I like darkness...with accent."

Agreed, it IS about the shadows. Light just controls them.

Marko Cecic-Karuzic wrote:
Light, and it's use and interpretation, is everything. No, not everything, but so damn much. And light doesn't always mean "lighting." Certainly not in the ways that most people think of. But seeing light is something that is an underdeveloped talent in people. Photographers, or those who strive to be, should pay attention to light all the time. (At all times, not only when a camera's in hand.) To quantity, quality, direction, color, intensity, fall-off, everything. You have to learn to photograph with your eyes as well as with your camera and meter and post-process.

That's the way I see it.

Well said.

Seeing light is the first step. Learning how to use it is the next.

To quantity, quality, direction, color, intensity, fall-off, everything. You have to learn to photograph with your eyes as well as with your camera and meter and post-process.

++ for that.

An MUA and I learned a while ago to interpret what we could see in terms of what a slide or sensor might do in the way of intensifying (for various and good technical reasons) our perception.  Apart from that delicate work, practically sixth sense, light always plays a character in story telling  by suggesting season, time of day, and weather, and then along with location and setting, color, texture, and overall design also cheer, menace, and mystery--atmosphere and visual timbre, in other words.

commart wrote:
An MUA and I learned a while ago to interpret what we could see in terms of what a slide or sensor might do in the way of intensifying (for various and good technical reasons) our perception.  Apart from that delicate work, practically sixth sense, light always plays a character in story telling  by suggesting season, time of day, and weather, and then along with location and setting, color, texture, and overall design also cheer, menace, and mystery--atmosphere and visual timbre, in other words.

Watch old B&W movies. Usage of light is becoming a lost art.

VirtuaMike wrote:
Watch old B&W movies. Usage of light is becoming a lost art.

i disagree, i watch law and order just to study the lighting, csi las vegas rarely has a scene without rimlighting, often colored, i think some of these new shows are groundbreaking in their use of lighting.
sorry i dont know how to tag just the quote i want, ok it worked this time

Usage of light is becoming a lost art.

May I expand on that: what's become the lost art, or abandoned, if any, may be the adept coordination of all elements--atmosphere, character, problem, plot, and story, illustrated or written--in slow time or at length.  Imho, those here who manage the sense of time (in the making and in the presentation) as well as light in their pictures produce the most inviting work. 

Perhaps we're living through the age of induced ADD with highly stylized quick cuts on the moving screens and infobits in our magazines.

I asked my girlfriend who holds an M.A. in English from Georgetown, "When was the last time you read through a book inside of a day?"  Her thousand mile state told me we're going to have to work at getting back inside that box if we want to write.  I'd say the same about fine art photography--the engagement with it, the meditative and creative aspect of it, the point of doing it and enjoying it, feeds some on time--and the more of it, the better.

robert christopher wrote:

i watch law and order just to study the lighting, csi las vegas rarely has a scene without rimlighting, often colored, i think some of these new shows are groundbreaking in their use of lighting.

Smallville i think is another show that has great lighting