Light Visionsuperpower

The magazine honoured its title Australia's international photography magazine with representations of American or European photography alongside Australian examples in most issues. More established photographers in their late thirties to late sixties dominated until the double number 6&7 of 1978 devoted to new Australian work. That featured 21 artists born around 1950 and with an average age of 26; the youngest, John Adair, being eighteen and the oldest, John Cerchi, thirty-four. Many, Fiona Hall, Sandy Edwards, Bill Henson amongst them, went on to important careers. Selectors were American William Clift; Christine Godden Director and Michael Snelling Administrator, of the Australian Centre for Photography; William Heimerman and Ian Lobb, directors of The Photographers' Gallery and Workshop; and Jean-Marc Le Pechoux and Steven Lojewski for Light Vision. The magazine worked in partnership with its near neighbour 1.5 km across South Yarra, The Photographers' Gallery, who mounted an exhibition New Australian Work with the selected imagery, which toured.

LightBoxVision

To take a reading in a front-lit scenario, hold your meter in the direct sun, facing the camera. I still recommend taking a reading of your shadows so you can see how much contrast there is and what that might do to your subject.

Unlike its treatment of books, on the numbers Light Vision was more equitable in inclusion of Australian photographers in its presentation of multiple-page 'folios' of individual photographers' work, even without taking into the calculation the 'Special Australian Edition'. Though there is no women's work presented in portfolios, the glossy colour printing as faithfully reproduces, effectively in tri-tone, the monochrome antipodean imagery of John Cato, Paul Cox, Phillip Quirk, Graham Howe and John Williams, the warmth of Robert Besanko's Kodalith paper, and Max Dupain's toned prints of the 1930s, as it does American Christian Vogt's saturated SX-70 and 8"x10" Polaroids. A full page is usually devoted to each image, with generous white borders allowing decent presentation of both landscape- and portrait-oriented images.

Light VisionInc

Identified by photojournalist Geoff Strong as “that haute couture of Australian photographic magazines”,[8] Light Vision was glossily printed by Norman J. Field & Co Pty Ltd in Richmond,[9] reproducing photographers' prints full page, and tackling photographic theory in essays, and in reviews of such contemporary texts as Susan Sontag's On Photography (1977). However, as a result of the cost of such support for the local printing industry, its cover price was the cover price was $2.70  which was at the high end of affordability at the time ($A15-$20 equivalent in 2019).[10] The double issue 6&7 was $5. Annual subscriptions within Australia were $15.00 for the six issues, with postage, Air Mail to New Zealand was $A28.00 and to other countries $A34.00. Surface mail to all countries was $A19.00.[11]

Lightningvision

Using the data provided by a light meter can help a photographer better understand light and how it behaves. Knowing the quality of the light and where it falls will help you control the look and feel of your image and has the added benefit of better consistency between shots.

What I recommend is holding the lightmeter towards where your camera will be, in the most shaded area of your subject or photo. This way, you are giving extra light to your subject making he or she properly exposed. One of the magic aspects of film is that it retains highlights really well. So you expose for your subject, and then the sky and background usually still retain their detail. The opposite is true with digital. For your digital images, you expose for your highlights.

When shooting film, especially color film, the shadows in the film need a lot of light. I have found it is better to over-expose your film, most especially when you’re shooting backlit. Like in the photo above, backlit refers to when the sun is behind your subject, lighting them from behind. When this happens, typically the sky and background are brighter than your subject, who’s face is technically shaded.

Shooting front-lit refers to the sun directly shining and lighting your subject or landscape that you’re photographing. In this situation, because of the direction of the light, you don’t have to be as concerned with your overexposures. To refresh why we were doing that in the back-lit situation, the shadows need a lot of light to expose properly, and with the sun behind the subject, the area you are most concerned about – your subject – is in the shade.

Incident light meters measure the light falling on a subject. Incident meters can accomplish their job with more accuracy, and finesse, in situations that would fool a reflective meter, such as strong back-lighting.

Producing the magazine, and responsible for the design and masthead, were Le Pechoux and partner Kalli Pulos, credited as 'editorial assistant' but who really was publisher, and never more than four paid casual staff, alongside correspondents from Europe and America and an increasing number of advisors, national and international: Associate Editor and 'Sydney Editor': Steven Lojewski ; Art Director: David Lancashire, then from issue 2, Lin Bender; Los Angeles Correspondent: Graham Howe; Paris Correspondent: Dominique Anginot; Adelaide: Ed Douglas; Perth: Miles Glanville; Hobart: Geoff Parr

Light visioneye

During Creative Camera editor Peter Turner’s visit to Australia in 1977[25] he met Jean-Marc Le Pechoux and significantly, Max Dupain’s The Sunbaker was featured on the covers of both Light Vision and Creative Camera in 1978,[26] with Dupain himself contributing an essay in Light Vision issue 5.[27] Such exposure, and that of the young Bill Henson in two issues[28] raised the profile of Australian photography in the UK.[29] The magazine played a role in setting Australian photography and photographers in an international context[2] and in publicising their work overseas[30] in a quality publication.[31][32]

Light Vision magazine, subtitled "Australia’s international photography magazine", was launched in September 1977,[2] and though it lasted only eight issues, it made a more lasting impression on Australian photography than previous periodicals.[3][4][5] In its first editorial, the magazine proclaims its purpose to become the "publishing outlet, key to large exposure, in this country reaching the level of quality which could trigger the international recognition that we need and deserve."[6]

If you have heard of aperture priority or shutter priority settings for your camera, you start with a light meter in a similar fashion. For instance, my main concern in my photos is my depth of field vs my shutter speed. So I set the meter in a similar way to aperture priority and adjust my aperture to the setting I desire. Then when I take my reading, it lets me know where to set my exposure. As a note: the reading the light meter gives is your middle grey reading, meaning that exposure setting is in the middle of the brightest parts of your photo to the darkest parts of your photo.

Light VisionGenshin

Critical and art-historical writing was building strength before the demise of Light Vision, with extended contributions from significant authorities, Australian and international, of both genders; Beatrice Faust, Peter Turner, Gael Newton, Memory Holloway and in the last issue, Max Kozloff.

A lot of people who are newer to shooting film like to say that it’s fun because it’s unpredictable. You take some photos, send the film to a lab, and like magic, you get your photos back. Some turn out great, some might have some ‘happy accidents’, and others are a bit too dark and muddy. I would like to argue here that film can be very predictable and very precise. The way you get those results is through the use of a light meter and manually exposing your photos.

Light visionmeaning

A light meter objectively measures the light and breaks it down into measurements that photographers can use, (Shutter speed, ISO, F-Stop). There are two kinds of light that they meter: reflected light and incident light.

Heatvision

Reflective meters are the one that reside in digital cameras. The light is measured from the camera’s position and is what is reflected into the lens. In-camera metering has become quite great over time, but a reflective meter only tells half the story.

A light meter is the best way to have control of your exposures, in turn giving you the results you are looking for. The lightmeter used in the video above is the Sekonic L-358, which you can find at Film Supply Club along with film and cameras to shoot it with.

The expensive cover price required to cover Light Vision's high quality of production, the new and relatively limited audience for art photography in Australia, compounded by its removal after issue 4 from the stock of the bookshop of a major public gallery, on the basis of the appearance of pubic hair in a controversial image by Christian Vogt in issue 4, all contributed to the magazine's premature demise.[3] Though not announced in its pages, Issue 8 was to be the last.

Book reviews, located in its off-white matt pages fore and aft, did not start to feature until issue 3, when the magazine appraised Craft Australia and Theatre Australia in a report on its joining an association of 'smaller magazines'. Artist and photography lecturer Tony Perry, in the 4th number, reviewed the American publications On Photography by Susan Sontag; Garry Winogrand's Women Are Beautiful;[12] Sex Objects: An American Documentary[13] by photographer Eric Kroll (misspelt 'Knoll' throughout the review); and Les Krims' Fictcryptokrimsographs,[14] while devoting a scant paragraph to Kelly Wise's Still Points (rendered 'Stillpoints' in the review).[15] In the next issue Robert Rooney joined Perry to compare Helmut Newton's White Women[16] with Edward Weston Nudes[17] and included a European with Herbert List Photographen (sic) 1930-1970,[18] and photodocumentary in Americans Mark and Dan Jury's Gramp.[19]

In the penultimate issue, in which three women photographers' books are considered, the pair are negative on Norman Sanders' At Home and in reviewing, for the first and only time an Australian volume, Timeless Gardens by Eleanor Williams and Wes Stacey, while reserving praise for Arnold Gassan's fourth edition of Handbook for Contemporary Photography, and the coffee table glossy Album Cover Album: The book of Record Cover Jackets, Maureen Lambray's The American Film Directors, and Barbara Blondeau 1938-1974. They finish with strong commendations for the Swiss photography journal Print Letter, while criticising Camera for its recent concentration on American photography, though Perry himself, in the last edition of Light Vision, topically covers exclusively American books of work by Lewis Hine,[20] Robert Adams,[21] William Eggleston,[22] Lewis Baltz[23] and others dealing with urban and rural landscape and the 'New Topographics'.[24]

Jean-Marc Le Pechoux (born 1953), who had studied at Stage Experimental Photographique and who, from 1971 to 1974, was a freelance photographer in Paris, came to Australia and taught at Prahran College of Advanced Education and Photography Studies College in Melbourne from 1974 to 1976.[7] Deciding to make the southern city his home, he recognised the need for a high quality magazine. He taught himself the trade of editor/publisher and set up Light Quest Publications in the front room of his home at 75 Wilson Street, South Yarra.

These are two terms that are usually used interchangeably by photographers. Both are devices for measuring light, however, technically a “light meter” only reports the light’s intensity, whereas an exposure meter measures the intensity of light and translates that data into camera settings needed to make a correct exposure in the given lighting situation. There are two types of exposure meters – incident and reflective. The exposure meter built into your camera is a reflective light meter, meaning that it measures light reflected from a subject. The other type of exposure meter, incident, measures light that falls directly onto the meter. This is the type of meter that is used to measure flash’s intensity.

A large international corporation [Philip Morris International] has recently compiled a collection of works by Australian photographers. In Melbourne alone during the last few months the public could have seen the works of J. M. Cameron, E. J. Bellocq, Jan Saudek, Lee Freidlander, Ralph Gibson or John Cato. National Galleries are collecting photographs. Colleges, public and private art schools and workshops provide varied avenues for the study of photography and many bookshops are importing and retailing fine books on the medium. A national conference on photography will be held in Sydney this month and finally, in Melbourne, the first dealer gallery of international standing to open doors in this country was inaugurated last month.

If your camera has an in-camera meter, it will probably be fairly accurate in the front-lit scenario. While when shooting back-lit, the camera is reading more of the bright background, which will then set the exposure to compensate for the background light, thus underexposing your subject.