Light and Color
The physics and perception of light and color that every photographer and cinematographer works with: what light is and how it behaves, measuring light, quality, direction and contrast, natural light, color temperature and white balance, color vision, color spaces, color harmony, exposure tools and lighting in practice.
VIS-110 Year 1 3 credits 12 lessons · 4 h 53 min
Offered by HSM University · Visual Media Foundations
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Explain light as electromagnetic radiation, the visible spectrum, photons and how sources produce light
- Predict how reflection, absorption, transmission, refraction, scattering, diffraction and polarization affect images
- Use photometric units, the inverse square law, stops and exposure values to quantify light
- Control the quality of light through source size, distance, diffusion, bounce and negative fill
- Use lighting direction, portrait patterns and lighting ratios to shape form and control contrast
- Read and plan natural light through the day, seasons and weather, and modify it on location
- Manage color temperature, tint, white balance, gels, mixed lighting, color rendering and flicker
- Explain how human vision perceives color, including adaptation, context effects, metamerism and color vision deficiency
- Work with color models, color spaces, gamuts, transfer functions, bit depth and color management
- Apply color harmony, contrast and cultural meaning to plan palettes for images and films
- Measure and place exposure with meters, the Zone System, histograms, waveforms, false color and zebras
- Analyze and plan lighting for a scene safely, ethically and sustainably
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h 53 min total · final exam
- 1 What light is 24 min · quiz
- 2 How light behaves: reflection, refraction, absorption and scattering 24 min · quiz
- 3 Measuring light: units, the inverse square law and stops 26 min · quiz
- 4 Quality of light: hard and soft 24 min · quiz
- 5 Direction and contrast 24 min · quiz
- 6 Natural light through the day and the year 26 min · quiz
- 7 Color temperature, white balance and color rendering 24 min · quiz
- 8 How we see color 24 min · quiz
- 9 Describing and reproducing color: models, spaces and gamuts 24 min · quiz
- 10 Color harmony, contrast and meaning 24 min · quiz
- 11 Meters, histograms and exposure tools 24 min · quiz
- 12 Putting light and color to work 25 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Description
The physics and perception of light and color that every photographer and cinematographer works with: what light is and how it behaves, measuring light, quality, direction and contrast, natural light, color temperature and white balance, color vision, color spaces, color harmony, exposure tools and lighting in practice.
Part of the Film & Photography stream, typically taken in year 1.