The Science of Light I

The most crucial part of my study is to understand the science behind light and lighting methods, by identifying the different behaviors many light sources have. The focus of my project is to light a scene with two different themes solely using lighting as my technique to convey the alternatives. I must carefully analyze ever aspect, property and function of light, so I can recreate it successfully using relevant software. Recreating light in a program can be very difficult as it is not so easy to portray lighting accurately, even with many presets given to you. First you must understand how light behaves with your environment, the mood in which you want to set, the materials, textures, colours and objects all will reflect how your light be portrayed. Reflection, Refraction, Bent and Diffused light are just some examples of light and how it is affected depending on the objects/surfaces in which it interacts with, so I really must thoroughly analyze every aspect of my environment so that when i create my lighting, it will look perfect.

Light can come from many different sources both man made and naturally. Examples such as fire, the sun and many electronic items like televisions, lamps or torches. Even certain creatures like fireflies have a type of light that is naturally developed through evolution. All these different types of light all equally affect the area in which they are in. Depending on the intensity of that source and it's behavior will create different types of effects and how we see those are based on how the light travels to our eyes.

Light is measured in waves similar to that of sound. However, the different wavelengths of light indicate visible and non visible colour on the Electromagnetic Spectrum. When light reflects off a surface, the wavelength will alter to represent a visible or non visible colour. For example, if an object is red, when light reflects off that surface into our eyes and we recognize that colour as 'red', it is because all other wavelengths on the Electromagnetic Spectrum have been absorbed by the object and the remaining/dominant wave is red. I learned a fascinating truth a while ago that no object or surface has any colour properties; everything is clear. It is when light information bounces off a surface and the wavelength alters through the Spectrum for the human eye to identify a colour. However, some colours that do not appear in the spectrum, such as brown, are because they have combined wavelengths, for brown the combination of red and green are present from a reflected surface. If an object is brown, it is has absorbed all colours other than red and green, which combine as the information travels to our eyes.

Here is an image representing the Electromagnetic Spectrum:

Another interesting fact I found out recently, that this naturally occurring system can be easily recreated artificially. Any form of technology with a screen such as a television, mobile or computer uses the RGB (red/green/blue) colour methods. Everything on a screen is purely red, green and blue. Technology generates the correct light wavelengths which transmit colour information to our eyes through the same method as the Electromagnetic spectrum. Our eyes adjust to the alternation of light information from the screen and the RGB format transforms accordingly. I found that fact incredible fascinating.