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Light vs Camera and the Human Eye

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eye vs camera

Light vs Camera Lenses

When it comes to light and photography, it’s helpful to understand some of the basic physics and relationship between light and camera lenses. The word “photography” was created from the Greek roots (phōtos, phōs, and graphé), which together means “drawing with light”. It is important to remember that light is the primary working tool of any photographer.

Light Rays

light prism color.

Light is the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that starts from red (the weakest of rays) to violet (the strongest rays). Light rays from the sun are considered white because they contain all the colors of the spectrum.

Black is simply the absence of any color. When we place a prism in front of a white light ray, the prism will diffract (or separate) the ray into all the colors of the spectrum.

We have different labels for describing the rays we see. Here are a few basic ones:

  • Transmitted Rays: When you look at a stoplight, the top light is red, the middle is yellow, and the bottom light is green. That light is transmitted by putting a light source behind a colored filter.
  • Direct Rays: When you look directly into the sun, a camera’s flash unit, or a flashlight you are looking at direct light. The light you see is coming directly from the source.
  • Reflected Rays: When you look at anything, you can see that object because direct light is shining on it and being reflected back into your eyes.
  • Ambient Light: Think of ambient light as stray light – light rays that are being bounced around from all sorts of sources. If direct or reflected light on the subject is stronger your subject will appear clearer and less hazy.
  • Available Light: Available light simply means whatever light is present when not using a flash or other sources of light.

Light Refraction through a Prism

When we place a LENS in front of any ray, that lens will refract (bend) that ray.

animation of light through a prism.
Stop for a minute and watch this animation.
Light refraction through a prism.

Camera Lens

A camera lens is ground or molded transparent material (glass or plastic) that refracts light rays to form an image. A lens focuses light onto the sensor of a digital camera to create an image. It is also known as an optical or photographic lens.

Creating an Image

As a light ray enters the lens, it is refracted and exits the lens refracted in the same manner. Because of the geometric shape of the lens, light rays are refracted, so they form images. So when we place a lens in front of any light ray, the lens will refract or bend that ray.

the movement of rays from subject, lens, aperture, and film plane.

Being in focus involves moving the lens elements forward or backward until all the rays coming toward the camera from the subject meet at one point; the camera sensor. In the illustration above, you will see a point where the rays meet. That point is also called the film plane. At that point, all light rays of the subject must meet to accomplish sharp, focused pictures.


Light and the Human Eye

the structure of a human eye.

The human eye looks basically like the illustration. The lens at the left side of the eye focuses light rays onto the retina at the right. The retina converts light rays into electrical impulses that are sent to the brain. Our brain then tells us we are seeing a bit of light.

Cornea

The cornea is smooth and is clear as glass. It’s strong and it helps shield the rest of the eye from germs, dust, and other harmful matter (along with your eyelids, eye socket, tears, and sclera; the white part of the eye). The cornea is the eye’s outermost lens and it controls the amount of light into the eye. The Cornea behaves like the front of a camera lens. When light strikes the cornea, it bends (or refracts) incoming light onto the lens. The lens refocuses that light onto the retina.

Pupil

The pupil is the round opening in the center of the eye. The Iris and Pupil act work just like the aperture of a camera. The iris is a muscle which, when contracted, covers all but a small central portion of the lens, allows adjustable control of the quantity of light entering the eye so that the eye can work well in a wide range of viewing conditions, from dim to very bright light.

Retina

The Retina is the sensory layer that lines the very back of our eyes and it works similar to digital sensor in your camera. The retina has photoreceptor nerve cells that help change the light rays into electrical impulses and send them through the optic nerve to the brain where an image (of what we see) is finally received and perceived. Because of this reception and perception function, retina is, perhaps, the most important component of our eyes.

How the Human Eye Works – Animation Video

Just like the human eye, cameras have a lens in front of the sensor to capture light rays. Light rays enter through the lens to the digital sensor; which is sensitive to light.

Human Eye vs Camera

We found a great video that explains the difference and relationship between human eye and the camera. It runs just under 2 minutes.


The Characteristics of Light

Photographers are constantly talking about the quality of light (both good and bad). Light can be hard or soft, direct or indirect, natural or flash, and come from different angles. As you learn the Art of Photography, you will undoubtedly hear photographers refer to using “good light” in their photos. So what is good light?

There is no one good answer because it’s subjective. Good Light is just the right amount, quality, color, and angle of light a photographer needs to produce the desired image. For landscape photographers shooting in the early evening, it’s all about timing for the best light. The Golden Hour is the hour between sunset and nighttime when the light is diffused, soft, and colors can be vivid. This is in comparison to daylight which is harsh, leaving subjects looking flat and unflattering.

Light and The Photographer.

Types of Light

There are generally three types of light sources in photography;

  • Natural Light
  • Camera Flash Light
  • Studio Flash

Quality of Light

When photographers talk about the quality of light, they’re referring to the intensity of light;

  • Soft Light
  • Hard Light
  • Direct Light
  • Indirect Light

Angles of Light

The angle of light is the direction of your light source;

  • Front
  • Backlight
  • Sidelight
  • Reflected
  • Diffused (or dispersed)
  • Night (or twilight)

Read our detailed guide on 11 types of lighting and how to use them.

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  1. Love the site.. one correction though .. Yellow is primary color and green is secondary color (yellow and blue makes green) 🙂

  2. Frank, glad that you like the site! What we’re talking about here is light rays. You are correct in that yellow and blue make green in the printing world. When you are using pigments or dyes to create different colors. This is commonly referred to as CMYK short for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) color space. With light however the color space is Red Green Blue (RGB) to which the
    primary colors are red, green, and blue.

  3. This was new learning experience for me (about the definition of primary colours) and it helps explain a few definitions that previously i had trouble with. I love learning new things that challenge my previous concepts.
    Thanks

  4. green is no a primary color, yellow is. You can’t mix any two colors to get yellow, but if you mix yellow with blue it will give you green. I can’t believe you have this info wrong…

  5. Rasha, you’re getting confused with the difference between additive color schemes, and subtractive color schemes.

    The primary colors for the additive scheme is red green blue. This is how light works. Combining any of the red green blue colors in various levels, produces the secondary colors cyan magenta and yellow. See the new image at the bottom of the lesson that I added. It shows how shining red, green and blue lights produces the secondary colors.

    It may seem opposite to what you’ve been taught in school, but this is fundamental to the understanding of light.

  6. Rasha you know there are more then one or 2 different colour wheels out there. One being for Light…and the one your thinking of is pigment or paint mixing. Mixing all the colours of paint turns black, mixing all the colours of light makes white. By mixing RGB thats how your tv or computer monitor pixels make you see colour.

  7. WoW! That’s amazing – you learn something new every day! I never knew there was a different colour wheel for light! When I read this I was indignant – “they’ve got it wrong!!”, but now I see and understand the painting mix making black and the light mix making white – it all makes sense 😀

  8. Wow! This greet, I know for explaining something in asmple way first you have to understand it deeply and only then you can explain it in simple word. Thank you, i enjoyed this.

  9. This site is very helpful. I’ve begun an interest in photography and this site makes everything seem clear and easy to understand. I’ll be reading in the future.

  10. I think many of you are confused between the primary colors and the primary pigments. RGB are the colors and CYM are the pigments…

  11. Thank you to this site it is so easy to understand. I have decided to look into getting my degree in Photography and decided to read up on it before I decided and payed for the tuition, after reading this site I have decided to go ahead and do it. I am going to use this site to help me through my studies and so that I can get a jump start on everything before my classes start. Thanks again.

  12. Thank you so much for this clarification. Being a professional fine artist and aspiring to be a professional photographer, this is a crucial distinction for me. It is interesting and interactive and not like a boring classroom. Thanks everyone…

  13. Easy to read so far, back to basic and solid my understanding before I jump to advanced level. Will stay and learn step by step. Thank you

  14. I’ve been guided poorly through some basic photography concepts in the past, however the RGB was one of the concepts that never truly fixated in my mind because I never fully understood it; the site was helpful but provided me with the same information I had gotten previously. It wasn’t until I read the Admin clarficiation to Frank from 05.07.09 @ 05:52 PM that it finally sunk in. I was reminded that the primary colors we are taught in school are for the printing scheme, not lighting scheme; the difference can be fully understood when remembering that when the primary colors are added in each realm they give opposite results: whie in the light scheme and black in prinitng. This was the most helpful clarification yet and I believe i should be included in the article to relieve a common confusion.

  15. I’m interested in improving and understanding how to use my camera properly so that I can take good photo’s so I looked on the web to see what I could find. This is just the type of course I was looking for. I’m going to complete each lesson and not skip any. Reading the questions and amswers help enormously also. I really can’t wait to get out there and take more photos!

  16. i have always been interested in photography but it’s only been a year or two since i’ve actually started doing photography myself…the more i went out and the more i took photos the more i got interested in it…and ever since then i’ve been wanting to learn photography…and i m so glad i could finally find a site where the lessons are designed for easy understanding… 🙂 looking forward to continuing the courses…

  17. Wowwww!! I’ve just recently developed a deep passion for digital photography but my smile turned Upside down while checking the prices of online courses! But visiting this site was a big “phew”!!
    Thank you so much for providing legit professional knowledge at no cost! You people are every budding photographer’s angels! 🙂 Thanks!

  18. The information on colours is really something that has amazed me. To begin photography, I reckon, we must understand the difference between printing colours and the light colours. And I must be honest, I was not aware of the use of colours of light rays and printing. The clarification given is really wonderful, and I must say this is the website I was searching for to start and learn photography.

  19. This is an awesome site, with great information. It has helped improve my game with just the simple suggestion on the first page! wow!! I have one question though that I’m not clear on. Sometimes, depending on my medical condition I have a hard time focusing. Glasses are not always good for me because of the varying nature of my eyes. If I’m in one of those blury moments, while shooting w/my camera and I focus the subject through the SLR’s view finder, because my eyes are off will the picture develop out of focus even though it looked right to me while taking the shot

    1. Eddie, I’m not sure about the nature of your eyes, but you may just have to learn to rely upon the auto focus of your camera by using the spot focus to have what you want in focus in the center of the viewfinder, and then moving the camera while keeping the shutter button half way depressed. Sounds like you’ve just got to practice and become familiar with how you see.

  20. Thank you for this site. Its like having a classroom in your home. One question, will there be a chance to share our photos with each other?

    1. We’re always looking to improve the site and that’s on our list of improvements to make. For now you can share your flickr account and get feedback that way.

  21. I have learned something even with the first lesson … although I am a Physics major and I understand the difference between colors of light and colors of pigments, I didn’t quite realize that the camera captures the correct color and the brain actually “corrects” the true image. I always thought that there is something wrong with all these cameras which capture “cold” or unrealistic images.. just like you have illustrated in the pictures here. Thanks for the great lesson.

  22. I appreciate the work you are doing. I mean how many websites do you see giving free photographic lesson. I am not a pro, but trying to curve out a niche. I am opening a new website soon, turning my photography into somewhat commercial and I am definetely going to refer your link in my site, so that visitors to my site have a choice to visit.

    Once again kudos to you. good work.

  23. I have been interested in taking pictures since I was a small child but have never taken the time to learn the basics. I have a 35mm SLR and a DSLR both of which I love. I am learning slowly with them and now with this program I can get a better handle on what I am doing. Thanks! 🙂

  24. This is fascinating! I had no idea that light produces different primary colors than print. I’m beginning to understand why the color on my pictures look ‘off’. Thanks so much

  25. I’m confused. Why is the light spectrum contradicting the basics of natural color pigments? I do understand that light’s primary colors are red, blue, and green, while the natural pigment primary colors are red, blue, and yellow, but why exactly must they be different?
    Couldn’t the color schemes be the same? The most confusing question that I think Rasha and I are asking is “If all color is reflected light, then why is it that the light color wheel and the pigment color wheel are not the same?” I accept that the colors are different, but am I the only that is puzzled by this predicament?

    1. The Difference is additive color vs subtractive color. Subtractive color is what we using in painting and when all the colors combine we get gray, or a neutral color. A projector or tv on the other hand uses additive colors which all combine to be white. They are just two different principles.

  26. Hi

    I was taught about RGB for light at school and I am not disputing it. However, when I know something I like to understand it too. When I look at your picture of separated light, something still bothers me. When I look at magenta, it looks a bit like blue & a bit like red. Cyan looks a bit like green & a bit like blue.

    But yellow looks nothing like red!

    I was thinking about this and decided that perhaps a rainbow would be a good way of examining this. Afterall, that is the most obvious example of refracted light that we see. According to the what I was taught, the rainbow order of light is ROYGBIV. I looked online at rainbow photos and that is indeed what I see. Assuming that violet is ultraviolet which we can’t see, all the colours pretty much fall where they should according to this sequence.

    I then tried to imagine the prime colours in the rainbow and see where they fell and at appears that yellow falls around half way through the rainbow. So, assuming that red is the first visible colour, and yellow is a secondary colour of red, then that means that orange is simply a part of red, because orange is certainly visible? And then surely yellow should show close to the edge, falling as it does immediately after red, not half way through the rainbow?

    Similarly, blue falls in between yellow and green as it should according to the primary & secondary colours we are all used to.

    And then, if the primary colours of light are RGB & the secondary YMC, why are we still taught ROYGBIV? The names aren’t even the same!

    I hope this makes sense to someone who can shed light (!) on this mystery!

  27. Like quite a few people before me, I too confused PIGMENTATION with LIGHT.

    I came to the conclusion that there are TWO different versions…one for ART and one for PHOTOGRAPHY. I don’t mean this to sound harsh, but accept the examples shown above, even if they contradict what we learned in art class – I did.

    Thanks for the clarification Admin for having “learned” this good ‘ol boy something new. I greatly appreciate the time given in this lesson to differentiate between pigments and light.

  28. I am thankful for this website. I am an art student as well and had to stop and think about the difference between the two color schemes. It caught me off guard at first but then I found it facinating that one produces light while the other produces dark. Interesting.

  29. i am loving this site….i’ll go on….i never thought of difference btw printing world and light when it comes to color mixing….thanks to makers of this site…

  30. I got my first DSLR for Christmas and this site is amazing! Thank you so much for putting all this info into a easy to understand website! I am “taking” all the classes and learning so much. Not at all intimidating!

  31. I have decided it’s time for me to get into photography in a more serious way rather than using just the compact cameras and I hope to purchase a digital slr shortly but first I though it best to learn and understand the theory behind professional photography and this site is just factastic for that so far…well done and many thanks to the editors!

  32. I particularly liked the explanation of that different types of light make your pictures have different looks. Now I understand why some of my pictures didn’t come out the way I thought they would. And I really didn’t realize our brains did that much adjusting! very cool

  33. Thank you for this fantastic opportunity! I’ve been an amatuer photographer far too long, so I decided to try and find a photo course to step it up in the new year. I am so thrilled to find such a clear explanation of RGB light color vs. the color wheel that we all learned in school. I think I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.

  34. This is a great lesson. I didn’t know any of this. I’m glad I found this place. I want to find an online course to learn photography and how to use my cameras. I’m also going to be buying a DSLR in a few months and just doing reaserch on them. I have a SLR but I never took it off auto. I dont know why. I just never thought to learn all the buttons on it. Before I buy a Digital one I would like to learn my fim one before I buy a digital one.

  35. Actually I’m a big fan of this website because I’m obsessed with photography , and I really need lessons or courses as much as you guys can !!!

    thanks for all ..

  36. Wow…I can understand why there is a lot of confusion over the primary colours of light. What I did, to help me understand, was look at photographs of real rainbows to see the RGB colours; then I looked at RGB colour wheels and the degrees (Red-0, Green-120 and Blue-240) totally helped. I’m a little geeky that way, but I get it now.

    Thanks!

  37. wow. thanks a lot fot this.. i’m really interested in digital photography.. i’m a beginner so this is a great help! Thanks once again!

  38. Wow…I can understand why there is a lot of confusion over the primary colours of light. What I did, to help me understand, was look at photographs of real rainbows to see the RGB colours; then I looked at RGB colour wheels and the degrees (Red-0, Green-120 and Blue-240) totally helped. I’m a little geeky that way, but I get it now.

    Thanks!

  39. I wonder why they don’t mention the different colour wheels in school. Why do we only need to learn about the “pigment” one? Clearly it’s only caused confusion 😉 Oh education.

  40. wow this is really cool. 🙂 i would have never thought. thanks for the visual. it really helped me to understand the consept.

    Thanx

  41. I’m only beginning my journey of learning and mastering photography, and i must add that this site has been a tremendous boost to keep things simple and understandable for a beginner like me unlike most photography jargonists out there. I’ll take a lesson at time.
    Keep up the good work

  42. I’m glad that I found this…I’m just starting and I agree that this information is easy to digest…a lesson or two at a time will help with a lot of practice…Thanks so much for this site…

  43. This site is helping me get a better understanding of the concepts.
    As a silver surfer I need it to be simple, this fits the bill completely.
    Now I can move from, Point, Shoot and hope: to better results.
    Thanks

  44. Here’s a quick an easy way to see the primary colours of light. Switch on you tv an put your face right up against the screen. You will see the sreen is made up of red, green and blue:)

  45. my husband purchased a nikon for mothers day and i cant wait to experiment with it, it should be here by the 25th of may this is an awesome tutorial for learning to be a photographer. thanks so much for all you are teaching us beginners out here
    Thanks again and again

  46. thank you so much for this site… photography has been my hobby since i was a kid and since now i’m plannin to upgrade to a dslr camera i wanted to learn how to use it and t start learning i gotta start all the way from the beginning and this site is helping me achieve it….:D

  47. Love this site! I’ve already ordered the 3 vol. set of books on digital photography. I’d recommend this site to anyone!

  48. Wikipedia has a VERY helpful explanation of the difference between additive and subtractiv: “Results obtained when mixing additive colors are often counterintuitive for people accustomed to the more everyday subtractive color system of pigments, dyes, inks and other substances which present color to the eye by reflection rather than emission…Additive color is a result of the way the eye detects color, and is not a property of light. There is a vast difference between yellow light, with a wavelength of approximately 580 nm, and a mixture of red and green light. However, both stimulate our eyes in a similar manner, so we do not detect that difference.”

  49. This is the same thing used in picture tube of television sets as well!
    @admin- Very well explained, keep up the good work!

  50. wow. this helps alot. I just got a dslr for christmas and have been trying to get familiar with taking better photographs. this helped alot!

  51. Hi,

    Being an artist, I too thought “hey, wait a minute, red, blue & yellow are primary!!

    I didn’t know about the light color wheel!
    Learn something new everyday!!!! 🙂

    Thanks,
    Eileen Michele

  52. Wow!! Everything makes so much sense now!!! I of course understood the print color wheel very well, but had no idea there was a light color wheel. I had always wondered why computers only worked with RGB, and how you were supposed to get colors like yellow and white, etc. Now I get it!!!!! It’s a different color wheel!! Thanks so much for the free site with all this great easy to read information!! I’m so excited to learn more about photography! It has become a hobby/passion and I want to create great pictures of my own of my children/family without having to go to a professional, and this will help give me the keys to do just that!! Thanks again!

  53. I was ready to take some classes at my community college but discovered none were available right now, and I wasn’t willing to put off my thirst for photography knowledge any longer. But now I use this site to pretend like I’m going anyway. I make class for myself Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-8pm and go through the lessons at my own pace. This site is helping me so much! Please keep it FREE forever! Thanks, Chris

  54. I think your site is amazing! but I’m pretty sure “Yellow” and not “Green” is the third primary color to blue and red.

    “RED light rays only contain red because it is a primary color. So GREEN light rays only contain green, and BLUE rays only contain blue. Again, that is because these are the PRIMARY colors.

    Secondary colors – magenta, cyan, and yellow are considered SECONDARY colors because each one is a mix of two PRIMARY colors. Mixing PRIMARY & SECONDARY colors will give you TERTIARY (third tier) colors …. making up all the visible colors in the spectrum.”

  55. I can’t believe how hard it is for people to learn additive verses subtractive color.

    The Yellow controversy: Since we learned color at an early age with paint and pigment. one of the first things we were taught was primary and secondary color mixing. Now mind you we are mixing pigments. So if this is a painting blog the primary colors are red, blue and yellow and the secondary colors are green, orange and purple. Great!

    However this is photography and we are learning about light and light color. There are two light color wheels one is additive color and one is subtractive color. Think of it like this: to get white on a white sheet of paper we need to make sure we don’t add anything to it. In fact if there is color on our white sheet of paper we would want to take it off the sheet (subtract it) in order to keep it white. If the white sheet of paper was filled with all colors it would be dark and close to black. This is your subtractive color wheel. The absents of color is white. Similar to grade school and that pigment based color wheel. You will see this used in the printing industry and the colors used are cyan, magenta, yellow and black often called (cmyk). Cyan, magenta and yellow are the secondary colors on the light color wheel.

    Now lets look at a white screen in the movie theater with all the lights off in a light tight room. What you see is nothing just pure black. You need to add some light to see something (additive color wheel here). Say I had a flashlight with a red gel over it and shined it on the screen, what you would see is red light. Now I turned on another flash light with a green gel over it and shined it on the wall. I would see red, green and where the two intersected yellow. Yes kids, green and red make yellow with light! If I add a blue gelled flash light all three of the primary colors would add up to neutral white light. Where two primaries intersect you will see the secondary colors cyan, magenta and yellow.

    This knowledge is used every time you sit down in Photoshop or go to print a photo so it is good to know what you are doing with color.

  56. Bless your heart, people keep bringing up the colors being wrong and you patiently explain it over and over 🙂 if they would just read a couple of the posts they would understand. However, reading all of your responses to them has helped reinforce this for me so maybe it’s not such a bad thing 🙂 All new to me too! Thank you so much!

  57. It was interesting reading about the different kinds of rays and colour. The lessons are straight forward and short enough to read several times through to make sure that you understand it. Thanks

  58. Great lesson. Just keeping them, the light vs. paint colors, straight now will be the challenge. Never gave it much thought, but knowing the levels and scheme will help to improve my photo taking.

  59. Direct light and reflected light (paint) have different primary colors. Yes? No? You lost me…

  60. You are completely wrong about your primary and secondary colors! GREEN is NOT a PRIMARY color! Green is a mixture of yellow and blue.

  61. I had no idea about RBG and was so confused at first! I’ve been training in painting and still don’t understand how red and green make yellow…? Should I just let it go and think of it like a math problem that doesn’t have a why behind it because it just is the way it is?

    1. ‘@spring Yes. It’s additive color where red and green make yellow. So if you add red and green paint you get blah color. If you add a red light and a green light you get a yellow light.

  62. I’m in tears so excited that you guys have put all this wonderful education on here. I can’t afford college so this is truly a blessing!!! THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS!! I’m learning so much!!

  63. I actually learned about the 2 different color wheels in school thanks to all my theater experience. You learn pretty early on, if you have anything to do with the lighting, that the color wheel for lighting is different than the one for painting (or printing as you call it in the article).

    People complaining and saying that you are wrong should probably watch the video. It explains it completely. They aren’t saying that the color wheel you learned in school is wrong, just think of two completely different color wheels.

  64. Nice to read these “chapters”. Very simple and easy to follow. Hopefully following chapters are as easy as this one and simple to understand.

  65. Thanks so much for the free lessons. I was just able to explain to my husband the difference between an additive and subtractive color. You have made the concept very easy to understand with the use of images. I think that you have explained it quite effectively, well for me anyway. (oh ya the 3rd primary color is yellow….lol, jk)

  66. I am learning so much already, I’m excited to tell people that Green and Red make Yellow and then watch the expression on their face. Very Interesting.

  67. Thank you so much for a site to learn Photography. You have made this so easy to understand and learn. Thank you million times over 🙂

  68. Thanks a lot for the explanation. I had no idea of the difference between mixing color inks and mixing light!! 🙂 thanks a lot!

  69. Haha People are getting SO angry! If you read it all carefully, they explain how print and light are completely different. There’s even a picture of colored lights proving their point… Silly people. 😛 Just open your mind and learn. Every photo program wouldn’t call it “RGB” if it were incorrect.

  70. I really very interested, it is really a very good course and everything is easy to understand.
    thank you admin!

  71. Wow, I did not know that light colors were different from pigment colors in that green is a primary in the light world! I have already learned something new today. Thanks!

  72. Thanks really informative and yes I get it mixing light gives you different results than mixing actual substance! 😀 I think I’m a little closer to understanding the RGB setting on my camera I had no idea about it before more! 😀

  73. Wow! So glad I searched and found this site. After spending $150 for a too-short leisure learning photography class I realized at the end that I didn’t know much more than when I started…I could not apply what I was supposed to have learned! So back to the drawing board. Thank you, thank you, thank you for explaining the mechanics first. I was so amazed to discover that the light color wheel is different than the one we learned in school. Thank you for your wonderful instructions-please don’t go away. I have a feeling I’m actually going to learn how to take good photos and make my camera work for me. Sure wish I’d found this site years ago!

  74. It’s been a while since I’m taking pictures on my own with my slr, but this is the first time I understand the lighting…greatly appreciate your sharing of your knowledge.

  75. Love this site right after going through first two lessons regarding light.
    It is surprisingly simple and full of required and necessary information on subject.
    Sharing of knowledge for free is difficult for professionals sometimes. But here I got what I want and I appreciate from bottom of my heart on sharing this much great knowledge so effectively and simply.

  76. Might be an idea to share.

    The pixels of a color tv is a great example for additive colors.

    Great site!, seems i didn’t missed much from my youth, where my dad was an analogue photographer

    Greets,

    From Holland

  77. this is great! i’m a beginner in photography and i was thinking of paying an online course for $200/month for six months but this one teaches me a lot and is very easy to understand.. at first i was a little confused but with the pictures and everything it makes me easy to understand.. not much of confusing terms and if there is they define it to a layman’s term. great website..

  78. This lesson really did help me out. I really got me to understand the out the primary colors and the lighting. I have to be truthful but when I did talk some classes on the at a JR. College. They were not so clear about Lighting and light blubs and the effect with color. I now can keep this in mind when it comes to taking my photos in a room with lights and also understanding the primary and secondary colors.

  79. Thank you! I am almost 60 years old and I learned something today because of this lesson on primary light colors. They say you keep your brain young by learning at least one thing new each day.

  80. Wow. My eyes lie to me! I knew I loved my camera, but I was unaware I could trust it more than my own two eyes! This site is really helping me out! I have been interested in photography my whole life, but recently have flirted with the idea of making it a career. I am finding this site very helpful in helping me make my way in that direction. I am continuing on and am hoping to learn more!

  81. blue,red,yellow primary colors in paint .. blue,red,green primary colors in light .. that course we learn t on school. 🙂

  82. Thank you so much. These lessons are exactly what I was looking for to start learning how to be a good photographer. I really appreciate it, and that it is free, most of all!

  83. I’m very shocked. I’ve never really been good at the colors wheel. But that’s pretty outstanding. I’ve just learned so much, it’s been outstanding and love the information.

  84. hey, i have a fuji film HS10 camera and I’m having a hard time understanding how to use the setting, for example changing the auto focus or aperture number. can anyone help me?

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