ABSTRACT
White objects reflect back most of the light that falls on them; about 90 per cent. Black objects, on the other hand, absorb most of the light, reflecting back only a small percentage. Subject contrast can be thought of as the difference between the amounts of light reflected back by the different materials of the subject when the subject is evenly lit. Subject brightness range is the combination of subject contrast and lighting contrast. In the shirt and trousers example mentioned earlier, adding a bright light to the shirt and a dim one to the trousers will increase the subject brightness range to a point where the camera is unable to capture detail in both the highlights and the shadows. Film and digital cameras are limited in the subject brightness range they can handle. Black-and-white negative films have a comfortable seven-stop latitude and can deal with a brightness range of around 128:1.
