The History of Lighting in Photography

This report explores the history of lighting in photography, from the earliest days of natural light to the introduction of artificial light. It covers the timeline of photography and the development of studio and location lighting. Additionally, it discusses different lighting styles and the health and safety risks associated with lighting in photography.

The History of lighting
in Photography

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
TASK – 1.........................................................................................................................................3
Timeline showing an Exploration of the Lighting.......................................................................3
Development of Studio and Location..........................................................................................4
TASK – 2.........................................................................................................................................5
Different Lighting Styles.............................................................................................................5
Health and Safety Risks...............................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Correct and appropriate lighting is
the key essence of a perfect
photograph or a video. Too much
light will result in very bright
photos or videos hiding the details
involved and too little will also
make the photo or video dark and
disturbs the vibrancy and texture.
Therefore, the following report
will be exploring the process of
lighting in both internal i.e., studio
as well as external i.e., in other
locations.
MAIN BODY
TASK – 1
Timeline showing an Exploration
of the Lighting
The most essential ingredient of
photography is the lighting.
Lighting can affect or depict the
mood of the photo, create an
appropriate depth in the frame or
even highlight a subject in the
frame. The only source of lighting
in the initial days of photography
was the Sun i.e., the Sun and the
weather were the most important
factor deciding whether a photo or
a video will be rendered as it was
required or not (Jung and Inanici,
2019). This was all about the
natural lighting photography but
the first instance of artificial
lighting photography dates back in
1839 when an oxy-hydrogen light
commonly referred to as limelight
was used by L. Ibbetson.
Therefore, approaches to the
methodology of photography and
its lighting have evolved
exceptionally since it was first
used in the history of mankind.
Below is the timeline of the
history of photography whose
initiation dates back to 4th century
BC:
ERA / YEAR EVENTS THAT
TOOK PLACE
4th Century BC The concept of
‘camera obscura’ was
first explained by
Aristotle.
1826 – 1827 The first ever
preserved camera
photograph was taken
by Joseph Nicephore
Nicepce.
1835 – 1887 Celluloid Roll Films
were introduced in the
place of heavy and

fragile metal and glass
plates.
1839 The first successful
process of commercial
photography i.e.,
daguerreotype was
presented by its
founder Daguerre and
Niepce.
ca. 1841 The process of
negative – positive
was developed by
William Henry Fox
Talbot.
1851 The process of
collodion was
introduced by
Frederick Scott
Archer.
1888 – 1889 The first ever film strip
of Kodak was
presented by George
Eastman.
1878 – 1900 Motion pictures came
into being
1925 The first ever 35mm
film, small format
camera was released
by Leica.
1936 Colour film was
invented by Kodak and
Agfa.
1948 First ever Polaroid
camera was invented
which utilized process
of quick developing to
deliver instant images.
1956 First ever aperture
priority camera was
launched by Agfa in
the name of Agfa
Automatic 66.
1963 First ever camera with
autofocus was
presented by Canon.
1974 First ever fully
automatic camera was
produced by Rollei.
End of the 1900s Analog photography
was transitioned into
digital photography.

Development of Studio and
Location
The history related to the
photography studios and
photography dates back to the
early 1840s era wherein the
processes of recording camera
pictures were invented by Louis
Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot.
During its initiation, natural
daylight was utilized in the earliest
of the photographic studios for
capturing the photographic
portraits. The direct sunlight was
never preferred but norther light
with no direct sunlight was thus
preferred. Studio photography
mainly uses flash technology
(Pierson and et.al., 2021). This
utilization of ‘flash’ was firstly
done in 1839 when limelight was
used by L. Ibbetson for
photographing of the very small
object. A lime piece was put in a
flamed fuelled with oxy –
hydrogen to create the lighting of
limelight. Mainstream flash lights
were started to being used in 1840
in the studios and in 1864,
magnesium wire came into
existence as a source of artificial
lighting. These magnesium wires
were also called ‘hot lights’ and
were expensive and even
dangerous due to the chances of
explosion. These tungsten lights
became pretty common in the
studios by 1860s and 1870s.
Paintings were completely
replaced by photography in 1840s
as fully equipped studios were
functioning (Galvane and et.al.,
2018). The technology of
negatives was introduced in 1840s
also known as calotypes through
which through which n number of
photographs can be developed of a
photo.
TASK – 2
Different Lighting Styles
Client’s profession being music
producer appropriate lighting and
ambience is required in both the
portrait as well as location
photograph therefore, different
styles of lighting needs to be
understood which are as follows:
Broad Light – When a photo is
taken by utilization of side
lighting so as to highlight the one
side of the face which is facing the
camera and other side is away

from the camera. Such a lighting
is used to make a thin face appear
fuller.
Short Light – Being opposite to
the broad lighting, it is used when
a fuller face is made to appear
thinner. This is done by focussing
on the side of the face which is
nearest to the camera. It suits all
the facial types.
Split Light – As the name
suggests, when the light hits the
face at 90 degrees from side so as
to lit up half the face and darken
up remaining face.
Butterfly Light – It refers to a
technique where a peculiar
shadow is created below the nose
in the form of a butterfly by
setting up source of light above
and front of the subject.
Loop Light – Yet another and
very effective technique for
portrait photography and it is less
dramatic when compared to
another types of lighting.
Studio headshot:
Environmental portrait:
Health and Safety Risks
Now, there are various health and
safety risks in the field of
photography especially when
exposed to lighting in studios.
First of all, it is always advised
never to touch the lighting bulbs
for the very obvious reason that
that they are extremely hot and
injurious to touch and cause
severe burns (Ma and et.al., 2020).

Also, even the cold light bulbs
shall be avoided to be touched as
the finger marks on such bulbs
will cause to form hot spots on
them and thereby cause the bulb to
blow or explode. Also avoid
looking directly into these high
voltage lights as it can cause
serious issues with the eyesight
and can also cause physical
injuries in the eyes. All the wires
and cables attached and coming in
& out of the light sources shall be
appropriately covered and hidden
to avoid someone getting shocked
from such naked wires (Landay,
2021). Also, the lighting
instruments which are to be
hanged above on a height should
be checked and re – checked
regularly to avoid any mishaps or
accidents on set or at the location
which may cause injury to
someone.
Very elementary but very
necessary, all the lose wires and
cables from the light sources must
be secured to the corners and light
stands to avoid any crew member
or other people tripping over such
cables and injuring them
(Dousoky, Ali and El-Sawy,
2020). The lighting stands need to
be firm and never be wobbly as
unbalanced stands will make the
light fall off and there are chances
that someone may get hurt
standing near such stand or even
more unfortunately, under the
stand. Coiled electricity cables
tends to heat up and increases the
risk of fire and also taping down
the lose cables and wires running
on the floor by gaffer tape to avoid
people tripping off of the people
on such lose cables. Most
necessarily avoid over loading of
supply/circuit of electricity.
Floor plan of the studio:

CONCLUSION
Conclusively, it can be said that
lighting is the key element to
make the photo or video come out
as it was expected to before it was
shot. Its tone, atmosphere,
vibrancy, tone, etc. all depends
upon the lighting utilized in the
shoot. Therefore, the above report
shows a timeline of the
development of the process of
lighting in the photography since
its initiation till present.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Jung, B. and Inanici, M., 2019. Measuring circadian lighting through high dynamic range
photography. Lighting research & technology. 51(5). pp.742-763.
Pierson, C. and et.al., 2021. Tutorial: luminance maps for daylighting studies from high dynamic
range photography. Leukos. 17(2). pp.140-169.
Galvane, Q. and et.al., 2018, October. Directing the Photography: Combining Cinematic Rules,
Indirect Light Controls and Lighting‐by‐Example. In Computer Graphics Forum (Vol.
37, No. 7, pp. 45-53).
Ma, S. and et.al., 2020. Quanta burst photography. ACM Transactions on Graphics
(TOG). 39(4). pp.79-1.
Landay, J. A., 2021. Designing Photography Guidance for Rapid In-Camera Iteration. In Design
Thinking Research (pp. 151-165). Springer, Cham.
Dousoky, G. M., Ali, Z. M. and El-Sawy, A. M., 2020. An experimental evaluation of
photometric performance and power quality of led lamps in different operating
conditions. Journal of Advanced Engineering Trends. 39(2). pp.157-166.
1