Wednesday 3 June 2015

Bloody Square Law Week: 13th April - 19th April

So, this bloody inverse square law is doing my head in! Every time I think I am close to working it out, I find something that makes me go back to the beginning to try and understand what it all means!!!! It's starting to drive me batty! It probably has not helped that we have been filming on location this week for our group project and I am absolutely knackered!

Anyways, I have found some more information about the inverse square law. If a light is say for example 1 metre away from the subject then we work out the lighting ratio and percentage like this: 1 metre squared  = 1x1=1 which makes the lighting ratio (fraction) 1/1, therefore, the light intensity is 100%. If you move the light back, however, it does not halve the light intensity but quarters it because 2 metres squared = 2x2=4 which makes the lighting ratio (fraction) 1/4 = 25%.

Here's a few links to videos on the inverse law and its application to cinematography:


It has been really hard to find a video or even photos that show the difference in light intensity over distance without the shutter speed or the aperture of the camera being changed. I managed to find two examples of images that show the difference in light intensity over distance out of everything that I have found during my research.

Examples of images showing the change in light intensity

Well, I really hope I am going down the right path with this topic and I hope I can teach my class mates something when I present all of my information to them.



1 comment:

  1. Okay, thanks for this. Luckily, you did well in your tests! :-)

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