Glossary

What's "Ambient Light?"

Ambient light is the light that's ordinarily there; for example, if you're making photographs in a room during the day, the "ambient" light is the normal room light; it's the daylight coming in through the window, as well as the light from any lamps or light fixtures. At night, indoors, the ambient light is the light coming from the lamps (or fluorescent or halogen lights) that illuminate the room we're in at the time. If you're outdoors, the "ambient light" is the regular light from the sun, or the sunlight coming through the clouds. At night, outside, ambient light is the light coming from the moon, street lights, automobile lights, or light shining out from windows in the nearby homes or businesses. Basically, the normal light that surrounds us - no matter where we are - is the "ambient" light.

Sometimes, when we're using strobes, we'll need to take this ambient light into consideration when setting our exposure; most of the time, though, our strobes will simply "blow away" the ambient light and we need not worry about it. But those of us who have hand-held meters need not concern ourselves about this, since hand-held meters will automatically factor in all the light falling on our subjects, no matter from where it might come, and will allow us to set our exposure for perfect pictures almost every time

Slave Sensor
A sensor built into most good strobes, that sits and waits for a short, intense burst of light. When it detects this burst of light (the flash from another strobe), it automatically sets off the flash tube in the strobe its built into. Voila! Now, with strobes that have slave sensors (often just called "slaves"), we can use the little flash built into most modern cameras to set off strobes with optical slave sensors.

Reflection" umbrella
is one that reflects the strobe's light back onto the subject, and thereby softens and diffuses the light. This technique is often used in portraits and for photographing reflective surfaces.

Barndoors
Barndoors attach to the front of the light and are used to restrict and control light; wide, narrow, and anything in-between, can be easily achieved by moving the "doors" open or closed.

"Britek"
Britek is pronounced "BRY-tek" (bry - as in fry - tek as in tech)

CRI
Color Rendering Index
The color rendering index is an arbitrary scale of 0 to 100. Developed in the 1930's, before fluorescent lights. It tests the manner in which a bulb affects the color of the samples. Since the color of the sample is known, the amount that its color changes because of the bulb illumination determines the bulb's scale rating. A 0 rating would be the absolute worst, with a score of 100 being perfect.

For comparative shopping, any bulb with a CRI rating of 70 or higher will produce excellent color rendition. Values between 60 and 70 would be considered good. Below 60, and you run the risk of poor color rendition. Be careful! Our bulbs are rated at a minimum of 90.