THE DARK SIDE OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Pack a flashlight
Remember next Sunday morning to turn back your clock an hour, so when you look up from your computer screen in the middle of the afternoon, suddenly, it’s pitch black outside.
Despite the sun playing the same game year after year, it keeps seasonally affecting us. The sun created the perfect backdrop for daylight saving that still makes the scene here and there go over again in memory; return traces of a five-o’clock shadow late in the afternoon seem to go back upon the happy hour in pastimes that bring the color of mango margs to the darkness.
All I’m saying is it sounds like a case of not knowing what you had till it’s gone. You need to take some responsibility here. Each of these actions define your image, not the least in front of the camera. The word photograph comes from the Greek meaning “written or drawn in light.” No wonder poor lighting or a lack thereof literally made for a bad picture.
Take a story told in pictures, for example: J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The protagonist Frodo Baggins sets off as part of a fellowship to carry out their mission, which is to get to the very heart of Mordor, the land of the Dark Lord, and throw the one ring of power into the fires of the Cracks of Doom. This is the only way to destroy it. External help comes in the star glass the elf-queen Galadriel gave Frodo, which has some light in it from the Silmaril, the long-lost jewel of ancient times.
Unfortunately the star himself, Frodo, basically looking like a total tool on camera made it impossible for the star glass’ light to gain a purchase on the dark. The onset of darkness mounting quickly against Frodo wound him up in a sticky situation that would have spelled Doom save for his friend Samwise Gamgee. The unsung hero of the story turned out appropriately named, too. Sam’s wise to the fact that using the star glass as a tool to shine a light on the problem will (indeed, did) help save the day.
From the same source he drew the picture of a mechanical advantage, a device comes to earth to enlighten the object of your photographic eye. Unlike hobbits, however, photogs have more than one tool in front of the camera. As part of the “fellowship of the ring light” whose mission it is to save humanity from the powers of darkness, here, I give you LED. May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
Table of contents
One right light to rule them all?
How to light up the room at a social event
The real and imagined problem of artificial light
A full-length formula
Hello darkness, my old friend
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