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.