# phong equation of illumination specular component

I'm stuck on this question asking me to calculate the intensity of a pixel using Ray Tracing. It gives values such as $I_i$ but doesn't give any coordinates.

I know for the diffuse component, $I_ik_d(n,l)$ can be written as $I_ik_d(\cos\theta)$ but for the specular component $I_ik_s(h\cdot n)$ is there any other way to write it so that it doesn't require any vectors such as $h$ and $n$?

This is the question:

• Are you sure you want N·H, or do you want R·L i.e. reflection vector dotted with light source vector? The latter would be the classic Phong equation (N·H is Blinn), and the figure appears to mark the R·L angle: 15 degrees. Mar 27 '16 at 6:01
• Should the question not point out which Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF) you need to use? You have Phong, Blinn-Phong, Modified Phong, Modified Blinn-Phong and a whole variety of physically-based ones. Mar 27 '16 at 10:17
• @NathanReed how can i find R.L if i dont know the vectors? Do i just use 15 degrees? Mar 27 '16 at 13:28
• @user2976568 The dot product is the cosine of the angle between the vectors (for unit vectors). Just as you remarked that N·L = cos(theta). :) Mar 27 '16 at 17:24
• @NathanReed sounds like the answer to me Mar 29 '16 at 8:07