Entry 47

  Maya Lin's Untitled (Topographic Landscape)

 image taken from: http://www.pbs.org/art21/images/maya-lin/untitled-topographic-landscape-1997?slideshow=1

While lighting from directly above is not advised for illuminating humans, Maya Lin's Untitled (Topographic Landscape) is a nice reminder that it can be a great choice for other structures. The top illumination of this piece highlights the peeks and dips of the land and focuses our attention on the very center peek. If I saw this type of light in a film it would be used to reveal the overall setting of the story and then zoom into the center of action. I love how the artists uses the alternating sizes of the the ridges in the landscape to help shape the piece by creating contrasts with shadows and how that gives the overall work a sense of life. Like waves on the ocean or rolling fields of barley.

Entry 46

Jenny Holzer's Krakow

 image taken from: http://www.jennyholzer.com/Projections/site/Krakow2011/#

Jenny Holzer is a modern artist who works with Projections, superimposing images in phrases onto landscapes using high intensity light. What's truly amazing about her work, as seen in this projection Krakow, is how well she matches her lights to the lights of the environment. This black and white photograph shows the intensity and tones of her projection in comparison with the natural city lights in the background. The two are almost indistiguishable, which makes the projection feel as if it is apart of the landscape. While it's obvious the words aren't coming from a building like the other lights in the scene, it still feels like the words are apart of the city as if they are the words of the city.

Entry 45

Disney's Aladdin, Poster

 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Aladdinposter.jpg

Talking about Disney again and it's another poster too, for Disney's 1992 film Aladdin. What I really love about this poster is that the artist is trying to replicate a light source they would never be able to actually observe. The light emitting from the lamp seems to be comprised of hundreds of stars and comet trails. It reminds you of the stars in the sky but when you actually look at those stars you'll notice they produce light which is nothing like the light in this poster. The designer of this poster chose to enhance the starlight by making it function more like a lightbulb. It's a combination of several different kinds of actual light sources resulting in an entirely new one. When creating light for scenes it appears that one should root themselves in observation and then let their imagination soar.

Entry 44

The use of color theory in various environments has been a well researched subject. People know that hospitals and rest-homes use blue and green paints to instill a peaceful and trustworthy atmosphere for their patients and that people often use light colored paints in small rooms rather than darker colors in order to make the rooms feel larger. People use colors in all sorts of ways to affect how people feel when they enter an environment and most people know a little bit of how this works. But, how is light used. I noticed that a lot of institutions like schools and hospitals have the same high intensity bright blue light in their hallways. Also, just as how white paint can keep a room from feeling cluttered the inclusion of a sunroof and natural light can really widen out a space. I wonder how do architects chose to light a structure and what are the reason's behind their designs.

Entry 43

I was fiddling around with a Lee filters sample book and wanted to see how the reflectors (ie the L270, L271, and L273) worked. I grabbed a flashlight and lit up a finger with a lee reflector swatch on the other site so it could catch and reflect the flashlight's beam onto the other side of the finger which was not struck by the light. L270 was a metallic silver sheet full of holes and the light it reflected looked as though it had passed through a cheese grater. L271 was completely flat yet it also reflected a holey looking light when I though it would reflect an even light. When I looked at it closer I noticed that the smooth sheen was actually full of small groves and only looked flat. Then I reflected light off L273 which was a full of groves like 271, but these groves were much bigger, like crumpled up tinfoil. Oddly enough it was this sample which reflected the smoothest light.

Entry 42

 Vincent van Gogh 's Painter on His Way to Work

 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_Van_Gogh_0013.jpg

I feel like I keep talking about two things in the blog, color and shadows. I don't know why I fixate on these two aspects of light. Maybe it's because they are the first things we notice about a scene, maybe it's because as an artist color and shadows are my bread and butter, or maybe it's because as a novice lighting designer they are the only aspects of light I can really talk about since they are so easy to examine.  Still I am always surprised by just how much a single shadow can do. Take Vincent van Gogh's Painter on His Way to Work, there is only one shadow in this piece and yet the work still rings true. In a realistic environment the sun would be casting shadows of the trees at the very least and maybe even a bit of the wheat in the background. There is a surprising lack of shadow in the painting and yet it still took me a moment to realize this, for quite a while a single shadow was all I needed for this scene to feel truthful.

Entry 41

 

Picture of Oprah Winfrey

 images taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Oprahfirst.jpg

So for this comparison I'll be looking at a random image and a copy of the same image but with some of my own manipulations so that I can try some lighting design of my own. So here we have two images of Oprah Winfrey the one on the left is the original and the one on the right is the image with the level of orange ramped up to represent lighting the scene through an orange filter. Orange filters block out blue light so the multicolored background becomes almost completely one shade, though the corners do seem a little green. Also the grey and yellow cloths of the two people in the lower right corner become practically the same color. So under an orange filter blues, greys, and yellows all turn to orange. The only color that is really enhanced by the orange filter is the reds in Oprah's shirt. This would be very helpful if I were designing a scene where I needed one person to stand out and the costumes in the scene were a mix of blues greys and yellows.

Entry 40

 Diego Rivera's Man, Controller of the Universe

 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Palacio_de_Bellas_Artes_-_Mural_El_Hombre_in_cruce_de_caminos_Rivera_4.jpg

Diego Rivera's Man, Controller of the Universe showcases mankind's godlike abilities to create and destroy. While the mural does have very interesting use of light within it, in the highlights it uses and contrasts in high and low saturation to stress the difference between good and evil, it also uses the light of the environment it is displayed in very well. As a muralist Rivera must paint with his environment in mind since his work will be there permanently. If for example, he was hired to paint a mural for a dark dull hallway and he created a mural that uses dark colors , his creation not matter how beautiful would suffer. Unless Diego's mural was meant to be seen in a dark environment the mural wouldn't work and the patron would either have to pay to install lights or chose to mot pay Rivera. When creating a design there may be some lighting conditions that the designer has no control over and its best for the designer to work with these conditions to enhance their work. Rivera uses the bright ceiling lights of this building to further illuminate the bright shining "golden era" of man kind and to help create further contrast between it and man's darker creations.

Entry 39

When light is shining though a blind the closer the surface it hits the clearer the blind shadows are. When shining on a table there are clear light and dark patterns but when the light has to travel all the way to the floor the shadows blur. The distance the light has to travel affects the type of shadows it produces. Is there a particular reason for this? I've notice that in the theater despite the criss-crossing wires the only things that cast shadows are the much larger beams. Why is the light able to fill in shadowed spaces as it travels further from its source?

Entry 38

Snapshot of Louise Lecavalier's  A Few Minutes of Lock, Staged at Jacob's Pillow

 image taken from: http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/dance/louise-lecavalier?ref=term

Nothing says "THIS IS A STAGE" quite as clearly as a row of footlights. While many lighting try an emulate realistic lighting conditions or try and capture a specific mood, visible flood lights tend to do both. There's this endless mobius loop with footlights, they make a scene feel like it's on stage but the scene is already on stage so they aren't needed, but without them the scene doesn't feel like its on stage so they are used to make a scene feel like it's on stage. Without the footlights, Louise Lecavalier's A Few Minutes of Lock could take place anywhere. They create a location all by themselves. I wonder what other lights do this.

Entry 37

 Ann Hamilton's Suite of 12 Iris prints on Arches watercolor paper

 image taken from:  http://www.annhamiltonstudio.com/prints/reflections.html

Working alongside photographer Aaron Igler, Suite of 12 Iris prints on Arches watercolor paper is a repetition of artist Ann Hamilton behind a layer of glass throughout several periods of the day noting the changes in light and weather patterns. This piece is a wonderful illustration of how changes in a light source affects the visibility of an object. Not only do the changes in light reveal different aspects of the figure behind the glass but they also reveal different details about the glass itself. Oddly, enough this print also shows us that more light doesn't always equal more visibility as the brighter pictures completely wash out the artist's face but the darker pictures really reveal the contours.

Entry 36

On rainy days there aren't any shadows on the pavement. Instead you get reflections of the objects and unlike the direction of the shadows, which are based on the location of a light source, the direction of the reflections are based on the location of the person viewing them. For example, if a person is walking between a car and a lamppost on a sunny day with the sun on the left the shadows of all three objects will be on each object's right. However, on a rainy day the reflections of the car and lamppost will tilt towards the person and will move as they move, while the person's reflection will disappear since that person will not be able to view their own reflection.

Entry 35

 Frida Kahlo's The Suicide of Dorothy Hale

 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Suicide_of_Dorothy_Hale.jpg

Time for some surrealism courtesy of of Frida Kahlo. The surrealist movement was a unique blend of the known and unknown of the tangible and imaginative. If any movement could explain how an artist could make the impossible seem plausible it was this movement and because of that it provides a wealth of information on what things make a composition feel real regardless of its absurdity. The Suicide of Dorothy Hale is a wonderful example of surrealist creativity as its use of light and shadow make the this two dimensional painting appear to take up a three dimensional space. Look at how the shadow of the body seems to propel the Hale's foot off the page by simply jutting away from the body. See how the combination of white light and changing details of the building create a foreground and background out of relatively flat space. Notice that the slightest change from gray to pure white clouds and placement of shadows near the body create the illusion of a light source.

Entry 34

The intensity of a light source affects what color we feel that source is giving off. While playing with a flashlight I noticed that while I lowered and raised the intensity of the light it also felt as though I was changing the color of the light. At a lower intensity the light the source gave off seemed to be an amber color and as it rose it seemed to be turning yellow. I had another much more intense flashlight and at it's brightest it seemed to be giving off a blueish white light. Was this just my imagination or does the amount of light a source gives off affect the color of light we see?

Entry 33

 Stanford Biggers' The Cartographer's Conundrum

 image taken from: http://www.timesunion.com/entertainment/article/On-exhibit-Sanford-Biggers-at-Mass-MoCA-3350705.php#photo-2532752

There is something special about natural light and its rather unfortunate that most galleries and stages make it impossible to really play with it. Why do you only see stain-glass windows in churches? why don't we try coloring sections of our windows or use colored lighting fixtures? The effects of such things are truly marvelous and it's amazing how drastic the atmosphere changes throughout the day. What I really love about Stanford Biggers' instillation is just how vibrant it makes the room, how it highlights the simple beauty in window light by focusing the audiences' attention on it.  There is so much artistic potential in our everyday, ordinary, experiences with light but you'll never notice it unless you try and change it.

Entry 32

 John Biggers's House of the Turtle

 image taken from: http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/auca150/john_biggers.html

Most of the pieces I've looked at have one source light or combine all their lights to focus on one object. John Bigger's House of the Turtle has several different lights that lead into each other but aren't connected. The four sources of light, the glowing orbs around the two center top figures, the towers of light, the highlight on the person behind the waterfall, and the flame in the left foreground, all illuminate the page but don't all focus on the same spot. Biggers has several different types of light that work together without any competition. The glow of the waterfall isn't diminished by the light from the towers as it rests in their light's edges, and the bright illumination in the top of the page doesn't force the bottom of the page to lose its darker atmosphere. Biggers' piece seems to prove that if the space is available and an artist designs their lighting with extreme care they can use all sorts of different lighting sources and tones in a piece without compromising any of their lighting choices.

Entry 31

 
John Biggers' The Four Seasons, In color and black-and-white

 images taken from: http://www.handgraphics.com/Africa_Amer_Artists/John_Biggers/DB_7-00.HTM

This will probably be one of the closest comparisons I write about that uses two pieces done by the artist without me altering anything for the discussion. Here we have two lithographs by famous muralist John Biggers. These two pieces of work are exactly the same except one uses color and the other is purely black and white. The use of color and colored lights don't change the mood or message of the piece at all for while the colored composition appears a little warmer and the black-and-white piece feels a little more sterile overall the two pieces are exactly the same. However, the colored piece does have one other unique aspect about it, depth.

Many artists create depth with light, having closer objects be darker or lighter than objects in the background, but they can also create depth with the color of their light. For some reason the human eye places warmer colors like reds, yellows, and oranges, in front of equally intense but visually cooler colors like blues, greens, and purples. Look at the fencepost in the colored piece and compare it to the fencepost in the black-and-white piece. The white fencepost pop out from its yellow surroundings much more than the fence post in the black-and-white piece. The houses in the colored lithograph also seem to recede further back in space than their black-and-white counterparts. This is most likely due to the use of white and yellow, in the houses and the lights their porch lamps give off, causing the houses in the foreground to pop out even more from the houses in the background; thus, enhancing the illusion of depth. So, if you want to enhance the perceived depth of a scene onstage without changing the intensity or number of source lights then you can try changing their color.

Entry 30

Why are reflections so bright? Light from a source can hit everything evenly but areas that reflect seem to be hit by more light than other areas. Like how on people the skin reflects light at the edges and gives the body a natural glow. In digital software this has to come from another light source, you can't do it with just one light. But in real life this skin light isn't caused by another light hitting it but by the skin reflecting the same light that is hitting non-glowing areas. What is the difference?

Entry 29

When your placing a clear plastic or glass bottle on a table there's this thin ring of light that surrounds the object. This ring seems to shrink the closer the bottler gets to the table and grow the farther it is moved from the table. When it is far away the ring is big but very fuzzy and as it gets closer it sharpens. Some how the bottle is focusing the light around it and creating this ring? What part of the bottle creates this ring, does it originate from the bottom or the middle of the bottle? How do different light sources affect the ring and when is it most visible?

Entry 28

An-My Lê's Small Wars (rescue)

 image taken from: http://www.pbs.org/art21/images/an-my-l%C3%AA/small-wars-rescue-1999-2002?slideshow=1

Despite the fact that this is a lighting blog I wanted to post about this photograph to remind myself that light isn't the only thing that makes a piece great. Light has to work with the other elements in a composition and when those elements and the lighting interact with each other the results are far greater than the sum of their parts. An-My Lê's Small Wars (rescue) has some truly marvelous lighting and atmosphere, but Lê was only able to obtain that light by manipulating the environment. What I love about this piece is the way the dust and smoke catches the light and spreads it throughout the photograph. On its own light can't do this it needs to bounce off of the smoke to illuminate the photograph this way and the dreamy fuzzy result is due to these two elements working together. As a lighting designer you need to remember that the environment your working in can help you light a scene just as effectively as the light source you use.

Entry 27

 Trenton Doyle Hancock's Rememor with Membry

 image taken from: http://www.pbs.org/art21/images/trenton-doyle-hancock/rememor-with-membry-2001?slideshow=1

Shadows give art depth so its very strange to look at artwork that doesn't use any shadow. In Trenton Doyle Hancock's Rememor with Membry you can tell there is a foreground and background due to the use of overlapping and different sizes of the trees, but often the forest to all be on one plane. The shadows and levels of light are all the same which is impossible in a real forest. There are darker edges on the trees to give them a certain three-dimensionality but nothing else. This piece is a good example of how important light and shadows are for placement and helping us figure out just where an object is located in space.

Entry 26

I spoke a bit earlier about the light arches that appear from lamps covered in shades, how when you put a shaded lit lamp near a wall there will bee this small bit of dark space just below and above the lamp shade. How the light only hits the wall a few inches above the shade do to this darker area. Well as I was walking though some halls today I noticed that these dark areas and arches of light are everywhere. When you're in an office building where the lights are laid into the ceiling the top corners of that ceiling will not be hit directly by the light and the ceiling will remain much darker than the other areas of the hall. Plus, the parabolas of light will appear so there is a visible wavy line across the wall, highest closest to a light source and lowest neat the edges of a light sources spread.

Entry 25

Snapshot of Lucy Guerin Inc.'s Structure and Sadness, Staged at Jacob's Pillow

 image taken from: http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/dance/lucy-guerin-inc?ref=artist

I love it see productions where the theatre troupe has decided to mess with the expected, like when they do a production of Macbeth in modern gothic clothing, or when the director decides they want to put actors in place other than the stage, like the aisles or rafters. Lucy Guerin Inc. does just that with light. I think when most people hear the word spotlight they immediately think of a bright round light centered on a figure/object. However, in Lucy Guerin Inc.'s spotlights aren't like that, instead of two round lights the group has chosen to use two quadrilaterals. It's a really small change from the norm but it really works for this piece, Structure and Sadness, as the dancers only make tight square movements. It's a small deviation but it does a whole lot for the piece.

Entry 24

  Cai Guo-Qiang's Reflection–A Gift from Iwaki

 image taken from: http://www.caiguoqiang.com/projects/reflection%E2%80%93-gift-iwaki-2006-ottawa-canada

Instillations are an amazing art media. One part sculpture one part architecture, an instillation is all about manipulating an environment to create a specific mood and atmosphere for your audience. Because of this an instillation is about far more than just the artwork the artist wants to display its about the location they display that artwork in and therefor about what type of light they use to illuminate their location in. If Cai Guo-Qiang's Reflection–A Gift from Iwaki was meant to only be about the massive sculpture it presents then it could be put in any room with any lighting and just imagine how different that would feel. Part of the drama from this piece comes from the stark contrast of the white spotlight lit mini-sculptures overflowing from the wooden husk and the dark empty room it is presented in. The single spotlights leave most of the room in darkness making the large empty warehouse seem small and tight. This actually makes the sculpture seem that much bigger since it completely fills the visible area of the room.

Entry 23

The light from a lamp when shown on a wall creates a positive and negative parabola that hovers just a couple of inches from the top and bottom of the lamp shade. In fact the light seems to come in layers there is a dark shadow near the ends of the shade where it is thickest, then there is a soft fill light which is the maximum amount of light that can penetrate the shade, and then there is the bright parabolas. Also the light in the parabolas varies in intensity, the edges of the parabolas are very bright and sharp but the centers are much softer.

Entry 22

While I am uncertain if this counts as an observation of light it is an observation I made only because I have been studying light. You see I read in one of my books that the human eye can only focus on objects 8 inches from it so I wanted to give it a try. I put my fingers right at the bridge of my nose and tried for a good four minutes to focus my eyes on my fingers. Alas, no matter how much I tried I couldn't focus my eyes. Try it yourself and see what happens.

Entry 21

 Kara Walker's  8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of African-America

 image taken from: http://learn.walkerart.org/karawalker/Main/Narrative

Let's talk about shadows. Shadows are an essential component in lighting a scene and if a designer wishes they can be the key component. A shadow in many ways is little more than a silhouette of an object placed on the floor but artist have the ability of taking that silhouette and moving from the floor to center stage. Kara Walker is an artist who's entire area of expertise is about manipulating silhouettes and shadows. She chooses to flatten all of the objects in her pieces because the issues she deals with, racism, sex, violence, and misogyny, are often too graphic when presented using a fully revealed human body. Shadows offer discretion, often a film may show the shadows of two people abusing each other instead of the actors performing it in order to show what is happening and still be able to  stay within a certain age-rating, and because of this a scene cast in darkness can reveal far more truths than a well lit scene. Take for example this piece 8 Possible Beginnings or: The Creation of African-America which hints at the sexual violence and exploitation of young black women under slavery. How would this piece change if we could see the forms and faces of the two figures? Would it be more powerful if we could see the sorrow and desperation on the girl's face or do our imaginations create a far bleaker picture than reality could create.

Entry 20

There are little things about light which everyone knows about but don't really consider. Light reflects off all surfaces to varying degrees. We all know more light reflects off white walls than off black but when was the last time you really compared the two. The walls of my room are a simple shade of white and because of that I almost never have to turn on the lights. There is only one window light can enter from and yet even with the blinds close there is more than enough light for me to work in. What's more, all the surfaces in the room are more or less equally lit from floor to ceiling. How does a light coming in from above reach the ceiling of my room? What are the mathematics behind it? When writing lighting programs how did early developers program virtual light to do this? What does the spread of a light representing the sun say about the environment's conditions.

Entry 19

 Snapshot of Carte Blanche's Killer Pig, Staged at Jacob's Pillow

 image taken from: http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/dance/carte-blanche?ref=artist&refcar=/artist/c-d

Another snapshot courtesy of the wonderful people from Jacob's Pillow. This time featuring the rather bizarre dance styles of Carte Blanche and their almost alien performance Killer Pig. Watching Carte Blanche perform is one of the eeriest things I have every experienced since everything about them, their movements, costumes, and lighting design, seems so unnatural. In Killer Pig a top light is used to cast shadows on the performers face. This causes certain areas like the dancer's eyes to appear sunken and small. This light also uses an uncanny amount of yellow to make the dancer's skin seem waxen and unhealthy. As unsettling as all this is; however, I can't help but love how Carte Blanch uses reflective light. The polished stage creates the illusion that they are walking on water.

Entry 18

 (L) Tintoretto's Susanna and the Elders

 image taken from: http://www.artbible.info/art/large/354.html

(R) Artemisia Gentileschi's Susanna and the Elders

 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Susanna_and_the_Elders_%281610%29,_Artemisia_Gentileschi.jpg

So I've found two new pieces I want to compare and contrast as I feel they illustrate how lighting decisions can help or hurt the telling of a narrative. Up for discussion are two paintings that tell the story of the biblical figure Susanna. Susanna was a virtuous woman and loving wife who was wrongfully accused of adultery by two lecherous old men. One day, after sending her attendants away, Susanna goes to her garden to bath. Unbeknownst to her, two lustful elders secretly spy on her while she washes herself. These two men later approach her saying that unless she has sex with them, they will use their influence to convince everyone that she does not go to the garden to bath but to meet a young man. She refuses and the elders have her arrested for her alleged promiscuity. Her life is saved by a young man named Daniel who reveals several inconsistencies in their testimony. The two false accusers are put to death and Susanna is set free.There are many different paintings depicting this story, the pieces I am comparing are by artists Tintoretto and Artemisia Gentileschi.

Tintoretto's piece is a very clear depiction of the voyeuristic act being committed. We are treated to the image of a nude Susanna bathing with an old man peaking in from the corner. The painting puts Susanna on full display, in fact this piece almost seems to want to put its audience in the shoes of the elders. Notice the soft warm light Tintoretto uses in his painting. What we are witnessing is a horrible invasion of personal privacy and yet the scene and its light are incredibly peaceful and welcoming. This light does not reflect the nature of the story at all. Susanna was almost put to death because of this moment and yet we have a scene with a low-intense amber glow. The only way this lighting choice makes any sense in the context of the story is if this scene is meant to reflect the elders point of view and honestly that's rather sicking and twisted as it inadvertently shifts the blame of the act and its consequences from the elders onto Susanna. After all, how can you blame the elders when Susanna is practically glowing in that noon day sunlight.

Artemisia Gentileschi's painting is not an exact literal visual translation of the events. In her piece the three characters are crowed onto a stone border with Susanna on one side and the elders on the other. The piece as a whole is incredibly claustrophobic but you can still easily understand that Gentileschi is trying to capture the emotional turmoil Susanna is in not necessarily the actual proceedings of the event. Gentileschi doesn't try and mimic an actual light source, the sharply angled light is far to white to be coming from a setting sun, instead she choses a type of light that reflects the nature of the men's crime. Her light is harsh, unrelenting, and inescapable. The light reveals every inch of Susanna's body yet keeps the two men partially hidden by the shadows it creates. This light is stark and almost painful as Susanna is turning away from it and her accusers with great distress and a very pained expression on her face. This light truly expresses the narratives theme of unwanted attention.

Entry 17

 James Abbot McNeill Whistler's Nocturne: Blue and Gold. Old Battersea Bridge

 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:James_Abbot_McNeill_Whistler_006.jpg

James Abbot McNeill Whistler was on of the parents of the artistic movement known as Tonalism. Tonalism emerged in the 1880s as American artists began to paint landscapes with colored atmospheres or mist. The style was dominated by dark and neutral colors such as grays, browns, and blues. Nocturne: Blue and Gold. Old Battersea Bridge is a Tonalist painting of the  Battersea Bridge which crosses the Thames River in England. The bridge was an old monument which was eventually replaced with a newer one. In his painting of the bridge Whistler took several artistic liberties, exaggerating the bridge’s size and arc.

Even knowing this very little about the Tonalist movement it is apparent that Nocturne: Blue and Gold. Old Battersea Bridge is a perfect addition to the style. The colors are a muggy was of dark blues and grays and a misty atmosphere is replicated with wavy soft brush strokes. However, we are looking at how this piece uses light not color and line. Still, even without the aid of color it is apparent that the time period this painting has captured occurs during the late evening. Why is it apparent because of the lack of intense light, the number of lights in the sky, and the lights reflected onto the river. If the scene took place during the day and the sun were out there would be an intense light source that would create a harsh shadow. If the sky were merely too cloudy for the sun to create such shadows we wouldn't be able to see any other lights and the sky and it wouldn’t be dark enough for the lights of the buildings in the background to be seen or reflected by the river. The fact that we can see the fireworks in the sky but not any shadows on the ground tells us that this painting is capturing an evening on the Thames. So we are out on the river during a night of celebration; yet, we are too far away for the fireworks in the sky to create light strong enough to cast shadows.

What does this light tell us? What does this light convey? The intensity and distribution of the lights we see only reveal two main things about the setting, it is late in the evening and there is a celebration going on. There isn’t much to be gleamed from the light sources in this painting until you note how strange it is. Why is the light so soft? There are fireworks in the sky and they can easily be confused for stars. Fireworks are not soft lights, often they create rays so intense they may as well be a collection of tiny suns. So, why isn’t the shy full of bright, highly contrasting, colorful lights? Why are the reflections of the buildings and objects on the water stronger than any shadows being cast on the ground? Why is is the light so soft, because the mood is soft. Whistler isn’t trying to convey a narrative of exciting bombastic change but a narrative of quiet peaceful contemplation. The light itself doesn’t tell a story it reinforces one. The light in Nocturne: Blue and Gold. Old Battersea Bridge is as quiet and peaceful as the scene it depicts.

Entry 16

 Caravaggio's The Calling of St. Matthew

 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CaravaggioContarelli.jpg

The Calling of St. Matthew by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is a painting from the Baroque period that tells the story of how Jesus inspired a tax-collector named Matthew to give up his profession and become Jesus’ disciple. In the story Jesus goes to a customs house where he sees Matthew seated at a table. Jesus goes over to Matthew and simply says, “Follow me,” and Matthew does just that. It’s a rather simple and one could say uninteresting story. Jesus says come and Matthew comes. In words alone there isn’t much passion to the story. Why there isn’t much of anything; no drama, suspense, glory, or excitement. In words alone the narrative is flat, but as a visual piece of art that has been blessed with Caravaggio's masterful use of light this flat story becomes something grand.

To see how let’s begin by noting the types of light Caravaggio uses. There is only one source of light and it seems to be originating from an offstage window. The room is otherwise cast in darkness. What is unique about this light is just how intense it is. The shadows it creates on the people’s faces and on the walls of of the room are all very sharp. There is a very clear line where the light ends and the shadow begins. The source of the light is the sun and its angle through the window helps us guess the time period. There is a window inside the scene, but no light is coming from it; thus, it is safe to say that the harsh angle of the light coming from only one window is caused by the sun being low in the sky. Thus, it is safe to say that this scene occurs either at the beginning or end of the day. The angle of the light creates a natural spotlight, illuminating the faces of the men at the end of the table and directing our eyes straight to these men making them the most important figures in the scene.

If all the things supposed in the previous paragraph are true, then a very special narrative is formed. It is the end of a very long day of tax collecting. Matthew, one of several tax-collectors, sits with friends in a custom house. He is seated at the end of a table and to his irritation the sun is spilling in from a window right onto his face. In order to protect his eyes Matthew turns his head down. He buries his nose into his money and continues counting his gatherings. A man enters the customs house. He is bathed in shadows, the angle of the light casts all but his head and upper torso in darkness. The newcomer approaches Matthew’s table and calls out. Matthew’s friend is shocked by the man’s words and points to Matthew’s bend over form. Noticing his friend’s actions and hearing the man’s call Matthew will look up from his coins and his face is bathed in a bright, blinding light like no other. All this, the setting, the mood, the symbolism of a person being brought out of darkness and into light, is revealed from just the intensity and distribution of a single offstage light source.

Entry 15

Had the misfortune of standing in front of a street corner last night. About five cars blared their blinding headlights right into my face. While it wasn't pleasant I did notice that when you squint your eyes the rays of the headlights split into four beams, one going up, another down, the third left, and the fourth right. Just one of those rays was very similar to an intense single source like a flashlight or a spotlight. Also they changed shape and direction as I focused and unfocused my eyes.

Entry 14

Today I realized there's a common misconception that when light is dark and cool, like during a rainy day, the colors of the environment become desaturated and less vivid. This isn't really the case, today it was rainy and as I looked around I noticed that the plants were even more bright and vivid. Even the dead brown fallen leaves, pine needles, and dirt seemed to be made of far brighter colors than normal. Perhaps the idea that rainy weather equals gloomy grey colors is just a psychological thing. It may even be as simple a decision by an artist to convey a gloomy mood, but just like how a rainy day can be a happy joyous thing rain can produce happy joyous colors.

Entry 13

Rembrandt's  The Man with the Golden Helmet,

 image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mann_mit_dem_Goldhelm.jpg

Talking about the Baroque period again, this time featuring the work of one of the most important Dutch painters of all time Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Rembrandt was a master at capturing motion and truly inspirational when it came to the art of lighting. This piece, The Man with the Golden Helmet, is truly unique in how it reveals off stage light. Usually, the direction a light is shining from is best established by the shadows it leaves behind. Here the direction of the light can be inferred by the shadows it casts on the man's face, but the greatest indicator of direction comes from the helmet. The golden polished helmet acts almost like a mirror, reflecting the lights bright glare right back at its source. As a digital artist this feat is very helpful as it illustrates one way you can show there is a bright strong source light without casting dark sharp shadows.

Entry 12

Moving a light's angle can be used to create shadows of all sizes...vertically. While the angle of light can make your shadow 50ft or less than an inch long it won't change the width of your shadow. The light has to actually move towards the body for the width of a shadow to change. Digitally it should be possible to create a fake shadow with any width or height you want but what would that look like and what types of emotions would it invoke?

Entry 11

 Snapshot of Camille A. Brown's  The Evolution of a Secured Feminine, staged at Jacob's Pillow

 snapshot of video taken from: http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/dance/camille-brown?ref=era&refcar=/era/2010--%40

This snapshot was taken from the Jacob's Pillow Interactive site which hosts hundreds of clips of performances from various artist throughout several decades. Camille Brown and her company recently preformed there in 2011 and a short video of her piece, The Evolution of a Secured Feminine, was put up for public viewing. The site has been extremely helpful as it allows me to see actual staged performances and how their lighting design affects the piece. For this performance I was rather struck by the use of color, The Evolution of a Secured Feminine is a very energetic jazzy piece and the warm red key light really adds to the mood of the piece. Judging by the shadow on the floor the light is coming from backstage and this has the effect of framing the face in shadow, this compliments the costume design as the low hat tells use we aren't meant to see Camille's face. Its a nice example of how a great performance combines all its aspects together so they work with and enhance each other.