Light and Magic
Light has always fascinated me.
Even when I didn't really understand it, I still found it fascinating. As a child, I was often mesmerised by the translucent glow of the sun through the clouds. Even then I could see that the city streets had a magical look to them in the early evening, before ever knowing that photographers called this time of day the "golden hour".
One day, on a backpacking trip to Madagascar, I met a guy with a Leica camera. I had never taken any interest in photography - it all looked a bit technical and intimidating to me, not to mention expensive. All I had on this trip was a cheap point-and-shoot camera and a few rolls of film.
The photographer with the fancy camera handed it over and allowed me to fiddle with the buttons, patiently explaining what an F-Stop was and what the shutter speed dial did.
And then he said something that changed my life: photography had nothing to do with expensive cameras. He pointed to my cheap camera and told me it could take great pictures, because photography is not about gear, it's about light.
This was like a lightning bolt going through my brain. In that moment I understood that those technical dials on the camera were not what photography was about. All I had to do was look, and pay attention to the light. When the lighting is interesting, the photograph is interesting.
With my cheap point-and-shoot camera in hand, I was now aware of the lighting conditions around me, and I took some beautiful photos.
When I got home, my curiosity was sky-high, so I devoured every book on photography I could get my hands on. But when it came to lighting, I found nothing.
As result I started doing my own research, and eventually published a couple of articles on my website. These turned out to be very popular, because there was so little information out there, especially for digital artists.
In time I got a book deal on the back of this work, and after four years of research and writing, I published Light For Visual Artists. You can read the first four chapters for free here.
But my love for lighting didn't stop there. It has been with me ever since. Every photo taken with my camera, or even my phone, has light as its central subject. Every image I create in 3D is lit with love and care, highlighting the subject and telling the story through light.
I love all kinds of lighting. Be it the golden hour, the blue hour, available light, or studio lights. Each is fascinating in its own way.
Reflections, translucency, caustics - these phenomena are beautiful, and being aware of them, really noticing them, enriches your life. Being awake to the beauty around you makes you feel more alive and in awe of the world.
But light isn't just about aesthetics, it's also about storytelling. You can use light to drive a narrative, or to create a mood, or to reveal something about a character.
So, as well as the book, I created a course that you can watch for free on YouTube, called Lighting for Storytelling. It has a completely different focus to the book, and really dives into lighting as an art form.
In art, light is not a supporting actor. In many cases it's the star of the show.