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LIGHT—SCIENCE & MAGIC
exposure of a black-on-black scene works only if there are no secondary white subjects in danger of overexposure. Even without any white subjects, increased exposure of a black-on-black scene sometimes does not look right, even if it records more detail than a normal exposure. Although good exposure is essential, it is not enough. The manipulation of exposure and of lighting helps one another to record the scene well. Now we will look at the lighting principles and techniques. Like “white-on-white,” “black-on-black” is an accurate description of a scene only when we acknowledge it to be an abbreviation for a longer description. A better description would be “a scene composed mostly of dark grays but with some blacks in it also.” Like all scenes, lighting black-on-black scenes requires that we reveal depth, shape, and texture. Like white-on-white, the lighting of black-on-black scenes needs to move some of the exposure steps in the scene to the middle of the density scale. This is how we overcome the tendency for very light or very dark similar tones to become identical in a photograph. White-on-white scenes produce a great deal of diffuse reflection; this is what makes them white. Conversely, black subjects are black because of their lack of diffuse reflection. This difference in diffuse reflection is important mainly because of what it implies about direct reflection. The greatest single difference between lighting black-onblack and white-on-white scenes is that most black-on-black scenes allow us the full use of direct reflection. White subjects do not necessarily produce less direct reflection. Instead, whatever direct reflection a white thing does produce is less noticeable because the diffuse reflection is so much brighter by comparison. By the same token, black things do not produce any more direct reflection. However, the direct reflection they do produce is more visible because those reflections have less competition from diffuse reflections. Thus, the rule of thumb for lighting most black-on-black scenes is to capitalize on direct reflection whenever possible. If you have mastered lighting metal, you know that we usually do the same for those cases. (Direct reflection makes the metal bright. We rarely want to photograph it to appear dark.) Therefore, another good rule for black-on-black is to light it as if it were metal, regardless of the actual material. Generally, this means finding the family of angles that produces direct reflection and filling that family of angles with a
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