Source to Sensor (It's all about the LIGHT stupid!)

So I read and hear so much about camera equipment these days...

I admit, I am a gear head. I have more equipment for more hobbies than you can shake a stick at. I have nice gear, new gear, old gear, used gear, DIY gear, and store bought gear... However, every endeavor eventually boils down to some basic principle, which when applied in complex ways makes you seem like a god to those around you. And so it is with Photography. But for some reason I don't think people say it enough so here it is again.

"It's ALL about the LIGHT stupid!!!"

I have been taking photos for 20 years and have just started a photography business and yet once in a while I still have trouble deciphering the light... This happened recently with a simple product shoot I was doing for friends. This was not a paid gig, just something I was doing because I though the effect would be cool... (Maybe I missed it because I was just "playing around"?) Never the less, I completely misread the ambient light. The photos turned out just fine (laser) but about 1/2 way through the shoot I realized the ambient overhead light was contributing a lot to the photo.

All the years of shooting photos, all the reading on Strobist, all the books I have read, all the online communities I browse, and all the classes I have taken, none have explained this in simple, basic terms. The best source thus far has been; "Light, Science and Magic". The lack of this knowledge is proven by my friends who ask me about taking photos and they talk about being confused by aperture, shutter speed, ISO, WB, etc... These things are only controling the light from the front of the lens to the sensor! What about everything else?

There are resources such as strobist who are a wealth of information about light placement and how it hits the subject. But the fact is that even if you do the exact same light placement you will not get the same photo with out the exact same scene! Yes David discusses ambient a lot but what is ambient? It is everything coming into your lens from the surroundings. This could be from a lamp, window, or perhaps it is flash bouncing off a wall. Wait, what are you talking about Ira? Flash is not ambient? Well that is true however, if you don't think about where that extra flash light is going it just might come back in at some wrong angle and POOF you have weird light affects in your subject. What about light bouncing off the wall from the lamp in the corner? How does it fall on the subject? Is it contributing to light which is coming in from the window? If so it is the wrong WB or color? Light is all over and bouncing in all directions off of everything around you. I think most of the people who are reading forums and posts like this are in smaller spaces, less controlled spaces. And therefore they have trouble deciphering the light. So lets start with that. Find the light, decipher it, then, and ONLY then can you cipher it into digital 1's and 0's...

Now don't get me wrong. I am not giving up my expensive gear. I will probably buy, build, and create more. But my focus, and yours, must always be on the LIGHT all the way from source to sensor.

Light Cipher