Hi, this is Jay P. Morgan.
Welcome back to Chapter 2 in our series on the Laws of Light.
If you didn't watch the first one on how to light a sphere, you're probably going to want
to go back and start there before you get on to the cube.
Cube is an interesting subject matter because it relates to a lot of things that a photographer
or videographer has to work with.
These are principles that I was taught by Charlie Potts, the head of the photo department
at Art Center College of Design.
He taught this to all the incoming freshman classes.
Hopefully, you can build on it as I have, and it will become a part of the way you light
and the way you see the world through the photographic lens.
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A cube has six surfaces.
Unfortunately, in a two-dimensional experience, we'll only be able to see three of them.
So, we need to understand how to light three distinct surfaces of a cube.
Remember, cameras are not your tool.
Cameras are simply what you use to record light that's been placed in front of you.
Without good light, without some kind of light, you don't have an image.
So, light really becomes our tool.
So, let's talk about the qualities of light, and help us to understand them so we can apply
them to our imagery.
So, let's get started, see what we can do.
First off, we're going to turn our light on.
And some of the same things that happened with our sphere are going to start to happen
with our cube.
But they're just hard now.
We have a highlight side, we have a shadow side, but then we have a third flat dimension.
Now, if you're going to light a cube correctly, you're going to want each one of these to
have a different value.
That's going to give it dimension.
That's going to give it a sense of depth in a two-dimensional experience.
So, if this side of the cube is just as hot as the top of the cube, and this is really
dark, I only really have a two-dimensional experience going on here.
I don't see all three dimensions.
If it's lit correctly, each of these will have a different dimension.
As I raise this up, these two almost have the same value now.
As I lower it down, this becomes brighter, this becomes darker, and I now have three
distinct surfaces there.
And that gives me dimension.
This relates to cheese, it relates to a cereal box, it relates to anything that has square
surfaces.
You want to light it in a manner that's going to give each of them their own value, and
that's going to give the maximum amount of depth to that subject matter.
Now, we can also separate this from our background very simply, same way we did with the sphere.
We can rotate our light here, create a little light in the background.
Gives us our separation on this darker shadow side of the cube.
Gives us a nice separation there.
Or, we can turn this light on.
It gives us a much more distinct separation on the camera right side.
A cube does not have to be lit with hard, directional light always.
We can bounce the light.
[silence] And again, we're going to get these three distinct values of the cube.
But it's a much softer now.
We might have a much softer cast shadow than we had before.
If I choose to diffuse it from overhead, this surface becomes my stronger and brighter surface,
and these become the darker surfaces.
When it's lit from camera right or left, that side of the cube becomes the highlight side.
When you light it from overhead, this becomes the brighter surface.
You can do a top back light with the cube that gives you a really bright on the upper
surface, and kind of a nicer light on right, left and the front.
If you move it right or left, it's going to favor that side of the front of the cube.
It's going to open that up.
You can also put a fill card in that's going to bring light to the right or left of the
cube.
I'd also like to mention that this becomes an important kind of sense of dimension.
If you put this cube directly at the camera and make these all have the same size in the
image, it's not as interesting as if you choose to choose either a broader highlight side,
or a broader shadow side.
And that becomes a matter of what you want to communicate.
Do you want to show a stronger highlight side, or a shadow side?
That really depends on the subject matter.
Do you have a part of it that you want to have kind of disappear a little more and become
more mysterious?
Usually, with a cube, you don't want to aim it straight at the camera, but you want to
favor one side or the other so you have three different sizes as well as three different
values.
When I was at Art Center College of Design, we had to photograph a cereal box, over and
over and over again, until we got it in every possible configuration.
Was this larger or smaller?
Was this brighter or darker?
We had to go through every combination we could to show the different light values,
the different size values, until the box sold the best.
It was a cereal box test.
If you want to learn how to light a cube or something square, move it into different places,
camera angle, light angle, and see how many combinations you can make of a cube or a square.
It'll help you to understand light and where you place it, and how it affects those surfaces.
So let's look at some real life images that represent photographing a cube.
♪ [music] ♪ So, there's how to light a cube.
That's the second in our three objects: the sphere, the cube and now the cylinder.
So, come back and learn how to light a cylinder.
That will be the third in our Laws of Light series.
So, come on back and check it out.
Keep those cameras rolling, keep on clicking.
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Click on the button and find a time we can sit down together.
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