A client of mine recently asked me about lighting, why it was necessary when the room we were in looked great to our eyes. Well, that’s the problem, our eyes. Not that our eyes are that bad, in fact, they are way better than any camera. They are able to see a whole room, and a detail at the same time. They see colors as we expect them to be, not as they are reflected and changed by the color of the light. Our eyes can see a much wider range of tones and shades, without losing the details like a camera does.
It used to be said that our eyes could see on a range of 1:100, slide films could register 1:20 and prints a very limited range of 1:7. Now, these figures are from my memory and may not be totally accurate, but you get the idea. I don’t know where digital cameras are in that scheme of things, but they still are no where close to being able to capture the range of light that the eye can process.
room photographed with available light
For example, this room was shot with only the overhead lights on. The color is not a clean white, it looks more like a sickly green. The blue cabinets are more grayish green. And the wall art is dull, no life to it at all.
Now compare this to the same photo with some color corrections added in Photoshop.
the same shot with some color correction
The colors are better, but the art is still in shadow. The glass jars on the shelves are almost hidden in the shadows. And the shadowed parts of the white chairs are still quite dingy looking.
Now, on to the final image, which was lit with one light bounced into the white woodwork to the right of the scene, and another light coming from behind the camera to add some direct light.
final image with professional photographer's lighting
Now the white furniture is white, the blue cabinets are blue, and the art pops.
The designer of this space is Jenny Thomas Warner, see her work at jthomasdesigns.com
