<p>&quot;用光&quot; always means use and exhaust something. It is inappropriate to use that verb in photography, no matter it is HK, Taiwan or China, nobody use that word for photography or film making.</p>
<p>Mandarin has a special jargon for taking flash/lighting adjustment .</p>
<blockquote>
<p>打光  or   打光线  or 用闪光灯</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In case of &quot;make use of light&quot;. Without flash, mean make use of natural light for composition.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>运用光线 / 运用光线构图</p>
</blockquote>
<p>for metering</p>
<blockquote>
<p>测光</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In filming and photo shooting , when you run out of battery or memory storage/ film</p>
<blockquote>
<p>用光电池 / 用光记忆卡/用光菲林</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So you can see it is bad attempt to associate  用光 with the use/preparation of light.</p>
<p>Imagine the camera man told the director, &quot;Too dim, need more light&quot;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>太暗了， 需要用光 &lt;-- The director will ask what the cameraman need due to  (battery, film, data storage) exhaust/deplete/used up, or perhaps get a smack.</p>
<p>太暗了， 需要打光 &lt;== this is something everyone understand clearly</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-12T16:53:35.413Z
2017-01-13T12:06:55.140Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
mootmoot
<p>Chinese terseness: 用光 用闪光灯 using the flash</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-11T03:41:58.990Z
用光 is not the short for 用闪光灯 and it's much broader. It refers to the whole light aspect in photography.
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-11T04:38:49.190Z
@NS.X.： Yes, I think it's a little ambigous due to the lack of the context. You know that sometimes Chinese poeple like using "Topic Sentence". So this relies on how you understand “光”. This is a little puzzling. And I've changed the post. You can also do some changes to make it better :-)
xqMogvKW
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-11T05:01:37.313Z
@DongWei I've never heard people use 用光 to mean 用闪光灯, but I can imagine it as a possible scenario. Regardless, you should make your own answer since you've added more information in your editing than the original answer.
NS.X.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-11T10:03:07.297Z
Apparently, he knows how to edit, but not how to write an answer! Does it cost money to write your own answer?
Gangosa
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-12-11T00:13:52.577Z
2016-12-11T09:57:15.260Z
2016-12-11T09:57:15.260Z
Gangosa
<p>One of my textbooks for Chinese contains a lesson entitled "拍照". The lesson contains an exercise with questions that need to be answered using vocabulary and constructions from the lesson. The last question is: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>你拍照片儿的时候怎样用光？ </p>
</blockquote>

<p>The lesson's vocabulary lists contains words such as 光线 and 闪光灯，but not <strong>用光</strong>, which MDBG translates as "out of (supply) / spent / exhausted (used up) / depleted". MDBG's translation does not make sense to me in this context. So what does the sentence mean? “How do you use the light when making photos?”</p>

<meaning-in-context>
Meaning of 用光 in context of photography
# Meaning of 用光 in context of photography

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-12-10)

One of my textbooks for Chinese contains a lesson entitled "拍照". The lesson contains an exercise with questions that need to be answered using vocabulary and constructions from the lesson. The last question is:

> 你拍照片儿的时候怎样用光？

The lesson's vocabulary lists contains words such as 光线 and 闪光灯，but not **用光**, which MDBG translates as "out of (supply) / spent / exhausted (used up) / depleted". MDBG's translation does not make sense to me in this context. So what does the sentence mean? “How do you use the light when making photos?”

**Tags:** meaning-in-context

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-12-12. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

"用光" always means use and exhaust something. It is inappropriate to use that verb in photography, no matter it is HK, Taiwan or China, nobody use that word for photography or film making.

Mandarin has a special jargon for taking flash/lighting adjustment .

> 打光 or 打光线 or 用闪光灯

In case of "make use of light". Without flash, mean make use of natural light for composition.

> 运用光线 / 运用光线构图

for metering

> 测光

In filming and photo shooting , when you run out of battery or memory storage/ film

> 用光电池 / 用光记忆卡/用光菲林

So you can see it is bad attempt to associate 用光 with the use/preparation of light.

Imagine the camera man told the director, "Too dim, need more light"

> 太暗了， 需要用光 <-- The director will ask what the cameraman need due to (battery, film, data storage) exhaust/deplete/used up, or perhaps get a smack.
>
> 太暗了， 需要打光 <== this is something everyone understand clearly


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### Answer by username_2 on 2016-12-11. Score: 0

Chinese terseness: 用光 用闪光灯 using the flash

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: 用光 is not the short for 用闪光灯 and it's much broader. It refers to the whole light aspect in photography.  
> **username_4**: @NS.X.： Yes, I think it's a little ambigous due to the lack of the context. You know that sometimes Chinese poeple like using "Topic Sentence". So this relies on how you understand “光”. This is a little puzzling. And I've changed the post. You can also do some changes to make it better :-)  
> **username_3**: @DongWei I've never heard people use 用光 to mean 用闪光灯, but I can imagine it as a possible scenario. Regardless, you should make your own answer since you've added more information in your editing than the original answer.  
> **username_2**: Apparently, he knows how to edit, but not how to write an answer! Does it cost money to write your own answer?  

---

