Artificial Lighting: Flash System and Different Types

Artificial light is any light that is not natural and depends on an external source of power.

This could be your on-camera flash, external flash units or studio strobes, tungsten photo floods, an overhead light fixture, fluorescent lights in an office environment, streetlights, stadium lights, stage lighting for a concert.

The twinkling glow from Christmas-tree lights, neon, and so forth. Like natural light, artificial light can fall under the larger category of existing or available light.

Experimenting with different types of artificial lighting will help you understand how they influence the image and how your camera records them. The more you know about the qualities of light, natural and artificial, the better you can visualize and control the effects they bring.

Being able to identify different sources of artificial light and their inherent qualities will go a long way in helping you predict how they will affect your photography.

Tungsten Lights

These are also referred to as incandescent lights. They are most often found in homes, and they are among the cheapest bulbs to purchase. However, they are much less energy-efficient, and they give off a good amount of heat. Light from tungsten bulbs can vary quite a bit in terms of brightness, but this light is generally softer and warmer than fluorescent light.

Halogen Light

This type of incandescent light is more energy-efficient and produces a brighter, whiter light source. It is used in projectors, household lamps, some streetlights, car headlights, and continuous studio lighting.

Neon Light

A true neon light will have an orange-red color and is filled with neon gas, through which a small current is passed, causing it to glow. What we know as neon signs, which may be a number of different colors, rely on other types of gases for their color.

Though neon lights don't really provide enough illumination to be a light source for a broader scene, they themselves can make for interesting subjects or background material

Streetlight

Like neon lights, sodium-vapor lights use pressurized gas to produce light. You can identify sodium-vapor lights by their yellow illumination. If you take a long night exposure using street lamps as your light source, you'll notice this same, somewhat eerie yellow-orange glow pervade your image.