3.7  The Light Source

You know you have been raytracing too long when ...

... You take a photo course just to learn how to get the lighting right.

-- Christoph Rieder

In any ray-traced scene, the light needed to illuminate our objects and their surfaces must come from a light source. There are many kinds of light sources available in POV-Ray and careful use of the correct kind can yield very impressive results. Let's take a moment to explore some of the different kinds of light sources and their various parameters.