AI photography

Member lesson

Light before sharpness

Lesson 3 of 10 in AI photography.

What Is Light Fall Off? | Take and Make Great Photography with Gavin Hoey · Adorama
Lesson

Sharpness is the thing everybody reaches for and light is the thing that makes a picture. A soft, beautifully lit frame reads as a photograph. A razor-sharp, evenly lit one reads as a render, and no amount of extra detail will rescue it.

Two pears side by side. The left one is lit softly from one window, with one gentle highlight and a shadow side fading to dark. The right one is evenly lit and hard-edged, with three bright highlights in different places and a waxy sheen.
Look at the highlights. One soft highlight means one real light; three means none.
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Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A mid-tone contrast control. Turned up, it is the single most common cause of the plastic look.”

    • Height
    • Clarity
    • Micro-contrast
    • Depth of field
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Detail contrast at small scale. Related, and equally easy to overdo.”

    • Subsurface scattering
    • Contact point
    • Micro-contrast
    • Eye contact
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The bright reflection of the source itself. Its shape tells you the shape of the light.”

    • Grey card
    • Perspective match
    • Specular highlight
    • Light wrap

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