Mastering Lighting: What is Ambient Light?

Have you ever heard of the term “ambient light”? It’s a critical part to lighting that ensures that every object placed in an environment looks like it belongs! We’ll get into it more but ambient light is also one of the reasons why shadows aren’t completely black.

Understanding ambient light and how to use it can help you create more realistic, accurate pieces of work. Let’s get right into it!

What is Ambient Light?

Take a look around the shadows in your room. Notice how none of the shadows you see are completely black! If you take a closer look, you’ll notice that depending on where the objects are placed in the room and the light sources present, two different shadows may differ in color.

You see, ambient light affects shadow in both how dark it appears and its color. Ambient light is also commonly known as indirect light, diffused light, bounce light, and reflected light.

How Ambient Light Appears in Shadow

First we have to understand how direct light works! Direct light is responsible for the main source of light in a scene and doesn’t show up in shadow—not directly at least.

The surfaces direct light touch are in light and the surfaces it’s unable to reach is where our shadows are. Now, ambient light is much weaker than direct light so it’s able to show up in shadow without completely overtaking them! 

For example, diffused light is a soft, even spread of ambient light. A common example of this is skylight. Due to its evenly spread nature, diffused light can reach areas direct light is unable to reach like in our photo above! Since diffused light is a weak lightform, it brightens up a shadow without completely getting rid of it. 

Another example of ambient light is bounce light, a light that bounces off of a surface, lighting every surface it touches. Bounce light appears in shadows because it reflects off surfaces angled in a way that allows the light to reach areas in shadow. 

Color in Shadow

Light carries color! Ambient light will have the color of its source and can be influenced by its environment.

If a strong light source like the sun reflects off a purple car, it can create a purple bounce light that subtly appears in the shadows of nearby objects and people. The closer an object is to the car, the more intense the purple will look. 

Remember how diffused light is an even spread of light? In outdoor scenes, not only does skylight (an example of diffused light) evenly illuminate the shadows beneath it, but the color blue also spreads to the areas of shadow it’s able to reach! This is why you see hints of blue in outdoor shadows. 

In Conclusion

Ambient light is an essential part to creating realistic lighting in a painting! Our eyes are used to seeing shadows in varying lightness and color. So naturally, when the shadows in our drawings don’t resemble what we usually see in real life, our drawings look less realistic.

Of course, sometimes, we may want to deviate from these rules for the betterment of our style. However, as I always say, you’ve got to know the rules before you break them! 

If you’d like more FREE lessons on lighting, make sure to check out Aveline Stokhart’s course, “Mastering Lighting and Shading”! Have fun creating and see you all next time!