Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/21

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Subject: Re: [Leica] light
From: telyt560@cswebmail.com
Date: 21 Sep 2000 08:52:54 -0700

On Thu, 21 September 2000, Mark Rabiner wrote:

> 
> I'm of the one light school.
> When you walk down the street how many lights are shining on you?
>

> I'd rather use the white
> floor or a reflector for fill than a second light.
> I just use a second light head to light up the backdrop, that doesn't count.
> The main thing is the quality of your main light. It's size and distance from
> it's subject.
> Mark W. Rabiner 
> of the Monoluministic cult
> :)

Yep there's one _main_ light outdoors but secondary lighting can make a difference where I file my slides: circular file or keepers file.

I'm also monoluministic but to say that the main light is the main thing is over-simplification, IMHO.  Often there are natural or psuedo-natural reflectors that make the light far more useful or interesting: the light reflecting off skyscraper windows in Gib Robinson's cityscapes come to mind, and the light reflecting up from a hillside of dry grass can be used to light the underside of hawks overhead.  I prefer to use naturally-occurring secondary lighting but that's because it's what I'm interested in.  If secondary twinky lights produce the effect someone wants, use 'em!

On a somewhat related thought, is there much difference between manipulating light and manipulating pixels?

Doug Herr
Birdman of Sacramento
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/telyt
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