Patent ID: 7221864
Filing Date: 2007-05-22
Classification: G03B

Abstract:
1. A lighting apparatus for lighting subjects to be photographed, comprising: a plurality of lighting units each having a lighting element and a radiating surface, for radiating light from said lighting element, and each said radiating surface having a normal axis oriented in the same direction; and an optical-path deflection unit that has a plurality of optical-path deflectors for each of said lighting units, to deflect a direction and an illuminating angle of light emitted by each of said lighting elements, and that is formed as one body, wherein said lighting units are arranged to form a shape which corresponds to a shape of a photographing area of a photographing device that is used with said lighting apparatus, wherein light from said lighting units is uniformly diffused over said photographing area using optical-path deflection by said optical-path deflection unit, and wherein light from a first lighting unit located at the center of said plurality of lighting units is deflected to be emitted in a direction parallel to an optical axis of a photographing optical system of said photographing device, and light from a second lighting unit is deflected to be emitted in a direction deviating from said optical axis, and a magnitude of an angle of deflection by said optical-path deflector for said second lighting unit is determined in accordance and has a positive correlation with a distance between said first lighting unit and said second lighting unit.