ISSN: 2149-1755
Light and the laws of reflection and refraction as they impact on photography
1Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Faculty of Environmental Sciences,University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
Yıldız Journal of Art and Design 2022; 1(9): 49-59 DOI: 10.47481/yjad.1130708
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Abstract

It has been postulated severally by various authors that the basis of good photography is light and that there cannot be good photography without light. Primarily, light can be gotten from diverse sources like the natural lights of the sun and moon, artificial lights such as electricity and battery generated lights and indeed from open fire. Light goes with refraction and reflection and as has been put forward that light travels in straight lines, light has also been seen as energy in transit itself. Mixed together in suitable proportion, wavelengths between 4,000λ and 7000λ create a sensation of white light while narrower bands are recognized as violet, blue, green, yellow, red in order of increasing wavelengths. Photography is an aspect of the visual arts that falls within the scope of graphics and so photography as an art genre and as pure science has a lot in common with reflection as reflection and refraction has relationship with light. For any photographer to turn out good images he has to be conversant with the principles of light and so it is against this backdrop that this paper examines light and the laws of refraction and reflection as it affects photography.