Any light, when it strikes an object, will do one of three things. The light energy can be absorbed, in which case it is converted to some other energy such as heat. It can be reflected or refracted. In most cases, it will do some of all of these things. The reaction most people expect is the reflection.
When we talk about light, remember that there are three aspects of light that define the overall quality. Today we focus on only one facet of light and that is brightness. This is the first facet of light that any photographer learns to deal with. It is the brightness of the light that drives our exposure settings so let's look closer at how we measure the brightness of light.
