I'll also offer a personal viewpoint, since I think that is a part of what you are asking. My best-known piece, a watercolor, uses indeterminate lighting because it is set in the space between reality and surreality, and sunlight might anchor it too firmly in this world. I prefer, however, to use strong lighting. My best photographs are backlit, silhouetted, f-stopped down 2-4 times, or otherwise dramatic. Long, raking shadows... yum! When I discovered scratchboard a couple of decades ago, I was ecstatic: I could just use light to shape things. This was my first scratchboard piece. There is nothing in the scene... only the play of light on the boundary between figure and ground. Whether you are shaping something with words or with light, there is something magical in the very act of shaping it. Carolly